Shontavia Johnson, the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and director of the Intellectual Property Law Center, has been named one of the nation’s top young lawyers by the American Bar Association (ABA).
Johnson was selected to the ABA’s inaugural Top 40 Young Lawyers list, which recognizes young lawyers who exemplify high achievement, innovation, vision, leadership, and legal and community service.
Johnson’s areas of expertise include intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and innovation. In addition to her work as professor and director of the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake Law School, she has founded two entrepreneur-centered companies, Johnson International Group and Jackson Johnson LLC.
A trained mediator and arbitrator, Johnson has also served as a consultant and/or counsel to startups and large corporations, and she is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Johnson has been honored as an Inspiring Woman in STEM by INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine, one of the Nation’s Best Advocates: 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the National Bar Association and IMPACT, and was named a Higginbotham Fellow by the American Arbitration Association.
In addition, she was recently appointed as a Fulbright Specialist Candidate by the U.S. Department of State, a program that awards grants to U.S. faculty and professionals to engage in collaborative projects at institutions all over the world.
Before joining Drake Law School in 2010, Johnson worked as an intellectual property attorney at the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, LLP in Greenville, S.C., and was a Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
She is a cum laude graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law and received her B.S. in biosystems engineering from Clemson University.
For more information, visit Johnson’s faculty profile.
See the complete list of ABA Top 40 Young Lawyers.