Rebecca Snavely Saelao is an associate in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office. Her practice includes counseling clients in diverse areas such as contract litigation, regulatory law, and intellectual property rights, including patents and the Plant Variety Protection Act.

Ms. Saelao graduated from the University of California, San Diego, in 1996 with a degree in Biology: Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Hastings College of the Law in 2002. While at Hastings, Ms. Saelao was a member and Symposium Editor of the Hastings Law Journal, as well as a Moot Court Teaching Assistant and a Discussion Group Leader for Environmental Law.

Before joining Morrison & Foerster in 2002, Ms. Saelao was a Judicial Extern, in fall of 2001, for the Honorable Marvin R. Baxter, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, and for the Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, in summer of 2000.

Ms. Saelao is admitted to practice law in the State of California, and is a member of the Women Lawyers of Alameda County, and the Contra Costa County Bar Association. Ms. Saelao received the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services in 2004, 2005, and 2007.

Publications

• Co-Author of client bulletin on PG&E v. FERC, Case No. 04-70635, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 23706 (9th Cir. Sept. 18, 2006). 
• Co-Author, Patently Different: Will the Federal Circuit Bring Patent Law More in Line with Other Law Governing Attorney-Client Privilege? Contra Costa Lawyer Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2, February 2004, Contra Costa County Bar Ass’n.
• Presenter, The Cost of E-Discovery – Presentation on the Evolving Case Law Relating to E-Discovery Cost-Shifting (2004).
• Co-Author of client bulletin titled Injunctive Relief to Prevent Web-Posting of Already Public Information Violates Free Speech, also published in www.globalpapermoney.org , Vol. 1, Issue 10, March 16, 2004.
• Co-Author of client bulletin titled The Court Waits for No One: Ninth Circuit Confirms Availability of Appellate Review of Issues Finally Resolved By an Agency Order, Regardless of Whether Other Issues from the Same Order are Still Pending Before the Agency (2004). 
• Co-Author of client bulletin titled Court Rules CPUC has Broader Settlement Power (2004). 
• Co-Author of client bulleting titled U.S. Supreme Court Broadly Interprets Filed Rate Doctrine:  Entergy Louisiana, Inc. v. Louisiana Public Serv. Comm’n, also published at www.energypulse.net (2003).
• Co-Author of client bulletin titled Ninth Circuit Issues Latest Decision in Series of Cases Strengthening FERC’s Authority under Federal Power Act:  Skokomish Indian Tribe v. United States (9th Cir. 2003), also published at www.energypulse.net (2003).