Julie O. Petrini

Julie O. Petrini currently focuses her practice on pro bono work in the immigration, criminal justice and civil legal aid fields. She works closely with Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) and has handled matters for the Clemency Project 2014 and the Massachusetts Equal Justice Fund, among other public interest organizations.

Previously, Julie was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft, where she led the commercial legal team for Microsoft North America. Julie and her team supported the United States and Canada businesses, spending much of their time with customers, partners and policy-makers explaining, evangelizing, and negotiating arrangements for Microsoft’s cloud offerings. She joined Microsoft from Skype, where she was Vice President and General Counsel-Operations managing the commercial and intellectual property legal teams and helping to navigate the path to its acquisition by Microsoft. She was also Vice President and General Counsel–Operations at 3Com Corporation, and was Vice President and General Counsel of Polaroid Corporation. Julie started her career as a litigator at Katten, Muchin & Zavis in Chicago before moving to the Boston area to join Hale and Dorr LLP (now known as WilmerHale).

Julie has spoken on local, national and international panels on topics ranging from intellectual property protection and regulatory issues in cloud computing to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. She has also taught Trademark Law courses at Suffolk University School of Law. Julie has been recognized as a Leader in the Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and New England In-House. Julie is a graduate of Duke University School of Law, received her BA in English (cum laude) from Boston College, and is admitted to practice in Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Illinois, and the Northern District of Illinois.

Julie’s fellowship project is with the Access to Justice Revenue Enhancement Committee of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission. She will be working with the committee to discover, uncover, and recover fines and penalties, collected by various federal agencies, for the benefit of Massachusetts legal services organizations and their clients. The Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission is working to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts has access to the Justice they deserve.