Kirkland’s Ellisen Turner to Receive Prestigious Alumni Merit Award from the University of Southern California
Kirkland & Ellis is pleased to share that intellectual property litigation partner Ellisen Turner will be a recipient of a 2023 University of Southern California (USC) Alumni Award alongside six other honorees.
Every year since 1932, the USC Alumni Association has honored a group of distinguished alumni for their professional achievements and outstanding service to the university and community at the annual Alumni Awards gala. Mr. Turner will receive the Alumni Merit Award.
“I am beyond grateful by this recognition from my alma mater,” Mr. Turner said. “USC invested in a small-town kid and opened all the doors that led me to the path I’m on today. For that I am forever grateful.”
Mr. Turner co-chairs Kirkland’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. He is also an accomplished IP strategist and litigator who combines his legal, business and technical acumen to help clients maximize the value of their technology. Mr. Turner has successfully resolved billions in IP litigations and transactions, leading to recognition as one of the “World’s Leading Patent Professionals” and “500 Most Influential People” in Los Angeles, and as “Patent Litigation Lawyer of the Year.”
He is deeply involved in the Los Angeles community and in national legal organizations, serving on the Central District of California’s Judicial Merit Selection Panel, the California Governor’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee, and on the board of the Federal Bar Association’s Los Angeles Chapter. He also served as the chair and a board member of the IP Section of the National Bar Association when he founded the National Bar Association's annual Diversity in Tech Awards, which recognize leaders for fostering diversity and inclusion in the STEM and IP fields.
In recognition of Mr. Turner’s leadership, and his outstanding commitment to diversity, inclusion, and developing legal talent he also received the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s “Rainmaker” award and the California Minority Counsel Program’s “Law Firm Diversity Leader” award.
Mr. Turner graduated, magna cum laude, from USC‘s internationally recognized Viterbi School of Engineering with a bachelor of science degree in computer engineering and computer science, while also studying biomedical engineering. He was also a four-year USC Trustee’s Scholar, awarded based on academic excellence, leadership, service and talent.
The 89th Annual USC Alumni Awards gala will be on April 29, 2023, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.
