Susan Tien

For over 15 years, Susan has conducted attorney and compliance searches for leading employers ranging from venture-backed startups to Fortune 500.

Her background enables her to understand client requirements. She graduated from Harvard College and University of Pennsylvania Law School. She was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and served as in-house counsel at leading Silicon Valley companies including eBay and SGI. Susan also co-authored the career guide Conquering Corporate America for Women and Minorities (Vault, 2003)

Susan frequently speaks on career development for professional organizations (ACC, APABA-SV, NAPABA, Leading Women in Technology), law schools (Hastings, Stanford, Santa Clara), firms (Baker Botts, Cooley, Fenwick, Foley, White & Case), and corporations (Facebook, Juniper Networks).

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Speaking Engagements

Susan frequently speaks at legal career events. Some highlights below:

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Panel Discussion on State of Legal Hiring (March 29, 2023)

Susan spoke on current legal hiring along with Julieta Stubrin at the offices of Silicon Legal Strategy. Takeaways here.

Harvard Virtual Programming: Entrepreneurship & Being Your Own Boss (March 5, 2023)

Susan spoke on entrepreneurship on a Harvard panel, along with Victor Hwang, Roshini Rajapaksa, Brian Valentine, Eric Peacock, and Laura Horton-Ludwig. Together they covered topics including executive search, healthcare products and services, IT consulting, and coaching.

AABA Bay Area In-House Compensation Survey Panel (Dec. 13, 2022)

Susan spoke at this AABA panel with Kriti Rajput (AppDynamics), Lina Guo (MLA), and Bonnie Youn (RMN) on 2022 Bay Area in-house counsel compensation survey results and trends. Lina’s summary here.

In-House Connect: Job Seeking During Recession (August 18, 2022)

Susan spoke at this In-House Connect/Lexion webinar with Jessica Nguyen, CLO at Lexion. They shared practical advice and insider tips to help candidates advance their career or find a new role in uncertain times. See Corporate Counsel article on event here.

IAPP: Let’s Get Hired In Privacy (April 19, 2022)

Susan spoke on the spring 2022 IAPP panel “Let’s Get Hired in Privacy.” She was a panelist along with Jillian Jones (Recruiting Sourcer for Legal, Policy and Communications, Meta), George Ratcliffe (Head of Data Privacy, Executive Search), Tessa Saxe (Lawrence Harvey), Zachary Plotkin (Infinity Consulting Solutions). The event was moderated by Michelle Dennedy and Bryan Lee of Privatus Consulting.

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APABA-SV Job Transitions During the “Great Resignation” (March 16, 2022)

Susan spoke on this APABA panel on job transitions during the Great Resignation. She was a panelist along with Hogene Choi (Morrison & Foerster partner) and Cheryl Ho (Dropbox Corporate Counsel).

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AABA Panel Discussion: In-House Counsel Compensation Report 2021  (January 6, 2021)

Susan spoke on this AABA panel on in-house compensation and recruiting trends in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a panelist along with Aarti Sheth (Netflix), Amit Pandya (Couchbase), and Tam Pham (MLA). Please click here for key take-aways.

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NAPABA Panel Discussion: Executive Presence (November 4, 2020)

Susan spoke on this NAPABA panel on executive presence. She was a panelist along with along with Caroline Tsai, CLO of Western Union, Shaila Ohri, AGC Exelon, Nydia Han, ABC anchor/investigative reporter, and Jennifer Chow Bevan, executive & leadership coach at Path Relaunch. Please click here for the summary.

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AABA Managing Your Career During the COVID-19 Pandemic (June 3, 2020)

Susan spoke on this panel on managing your career during the pandemic, hosted by the Professional Development Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. She was a panelist along with Rudhir Krishtel, the founder of Krishtel Coaching, former Apple senior counsel and Fish & Richardson partner. Please click here to view the presentation.

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Left to right: Gloria Lee, Celina Lee, Seung Baik, Susan Tien, and Clinton Foy

NAPABA Panel Leveraging Your Legal Experience to Pave New Opportunities in Business and Entrepreneurship (November 9, 2019)

Susan spoke on this NAPABA panel on how big law attorneys turned in-house counsel have made pivots in their career to become entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, recruiters, CEOs, and board members of companies. Read Susan’s top 5 take-aways from this event. Other speakers included Gloria Lee (Chief Business Development Officer, Rutan & Tucker), Celina Lee (GC, AKA Study, Founder Give One Day), Seung Baik (President, Agility Fuel Solutions), and Clinton Foy (General Partner/Managing Director, CrossCut Ventures; Board Member, Super Evil Megacorp).

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Left to right: Aileen Casanave, Susan Tien, Anna Chen, Nick Leach, Phuong Phillips, Paul Grewal, Deanna Kwong, Robert White

Minority In-House Counsel Summer Mix & Mingle (August 30, 2018)

Susan moderated ACC’s in-house counsel event at Facebook featuring Q&A with Phuong Phillips (CLO, Zynga), Paul Grewal (DGC, Facebook), and Nicholas Leach (Chief Counsel IP, Chevron). Read Susan‘s top 5 take-aways from this event.

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Irene Yang (Partner, Sidley & Austin), Kelly Craven (Lead IP Counsel, Facebook), Angela Wei-Ming Chan (Consultant, Rayliant Global Advisors), Kriti Rajput (Counsel, MLSlistings), Wei Chen (VP & AGC, Salesforce), Sabiha Chunawala (VP & DGC, Juniper Networks), Susan Tien, Aseem Gupta (Sr Corp Counsel, Salesforce), Lenny Huang (Counsel, Alston Bird)

In-House Counsel Panel: Upward Mobility In-House (August 16, 2018)

Susan was a panelist at AABA’s Upward Mobility In-House event at Alston & Bird Silicon Valley. The panel covered what skills are necessary to advance the ranks in-house, how to work up to management, and where to find these opportunities. Other panelists included Wei Chen (VP & AGC, Salesforce), Sabiha Chunawala (VP & DGC, Juniper Networks), and Aseem Gupta (Sr Corp. Counsel, Salesforce).

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“Growing with Business and Technology” featuring panelists Mark Brazeal (CLO, Broadcom), Mallun Yen (Board member, RPX), Bijal Vakil (Partner, White & Case), and the Honorable Lucy Koh on July 22, 2017

NAPABA Western Regional Conference (July 22, 2017)

Susan moderated the NAPABA IP career management panel “Growing with Business and Technology” featuring panelists Mark Brazeal (CLO, Broadcom), Mallun Yen (Board member, RPX), Bijal Vakil (Partner, White & Case), and the Honorable Lucy Koh on July 22, 2017.  Read Susan’s top 5 take-aways from the panel.