What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

In 2021, the Pindrop legal team, led by chief legal officer and veteran legal strategist Clarissa Cerda, faced down the type of intricate, high-stakes, multiple-jurisdiction litigation that keep other legal departments up at night—proceedings filed against Next Caller by competitor TRUSTID. Pindrop aimed to acquire Next Caller’s service, VeriCall, to add critical technology to its platform which helps some of the world’s largest banks, insurers and retailers combat phone fraud by analysing and assigning risk to calls.

But a storm cloud hung over Next Caller. TRUSTID, a rival with inferior technology, sued it for patent infringement, breach of contract and false advertising, misappropriation of trade secrets, and intentional interference. The suit, filed in Delaware in 2018, was eventually split creating a multi-district fight. Altogether, TRUSTID’s claims exceeded US$100m.

Meanwhile, the acquisition gathered steam. It became apparent that, should it succeed, the deal would close just days prior to the first trial. After three years of litigation, in the midst of a pandemic, a complex acquisition process, and a high-stakes multi-jurisdictional dispute, Pindrop and Next Caller achieved vindication. Next Caller did not infringe any patents, did not engage in false advertising, did not take any trade secrets, or breach any contract. It owes nothing—a contrast to TRUSTID’s initial US$100m demand.

The clouds were lifted. Next Caller could sell its technology free of the taint of accusation, and Pindrop could work with its newly acquired company to achieve full business integration. Cerda and her team emerged from the contest victorious and the Pindrop legal department laid the groundwork for multiple court victories while simultaneously executing the acquisition of Next Caller, which closed just days before trial.

The team’s success is tied to its full integration into Pindrop’s business and its strategy—the defining characteristic of the team, and the hallmark of its leader. Only a trusted business stakeholder with Cerda’s depth and breadth of experience as a legal strategist across multiple technology companies and practice areas could have recognised the interrelationship between the Next Caller acquisition and its significant litigation exposure and dispatched both so deftly and successfully.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The pandemic helped showcase that our in-house counsel team is a strategic business partner that effectively led the company through a global crisis and provided momentum to better position our organisation to deal with future macroeconomic challenges. Our in-house counsel team is not just a cost centre: we focus on revenue generation by making valuable strategic moves that prepare our business to be a global leader for voice solutions. As a result, we continue to be relied upon to keep a pulse on ever-changing external factors to efficiently lead strategic adjustments to our internal operations that support business growth and expansion.