Virginia Scholtes is an attorney licensed to practice law in California. She believes that legal services should be accessible to all people and identifies as a bisexual polyamorous woman.

 After graduating from Stanford University with a bachelors degree in human biology and creative writing, she attended Berkeley Law and earned her J.D. with a focus on intellectual property and business law. She then practiced corporate transactions law in the San Francisco office of Covington & Burling, LLP, where she reviewed and drafted a wide variety of commercial agreements and represented under-resourced entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations pro bono. 

She founded Carnelian Legal in 2018 and currently volunteers as a crisis counselor for Bay Area Women Against Rape. Her counseling experience informs her approach to the practice of law.  

EXPERIENCE

Bay Area Women Against Rape
​Oakland, CA
Certified Sexual Assault Counselor
​October 2018–present

• Provide emotional support, coping techniques, and resources to individuals affected by sexual violence through BAWAR’s 24/7 crisis hotline

The Honorable Andrew J. Guilford, United States District Court
Judicial Extern                                            Summer 2014

• Wrote draft orders and legal memoranda on a variety of topics, including false advertising and defamation
• Conducted legal research on topics such as intellectual property law and commercial law  

Covington & Burling, LLP
San Francisco, CA
Corporate Associate, Life Sciences Transactions                                                October 2016–September 2018

• Negotiated and drafted confidentiality agreement, outsourcing agreement, and services agreement for a drug development company
• Drafted collaboration agreements, project finance agreements, patent and trademark license agreements, manufacturing agreements, and general corporate materials for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
• Analyzed commercial contracts, clinical trial agreements, FDA compliance materials, and corporate materials of both public and private biotechnology companies as part of legal due diligence for corporate mergers and acquisitions
• Coordinated legal diligence for pharmaceutical companies acquiring both public and private biotechnology companies, including managing teams of five to fifteen attorneys in various specialties
• Wrote online privacy policy and consulted on Title IX compliance issues for women’s rights non-profit
• Advised education non-profit on general corporate and compliance matters
• Represented women’s rights non-profit in negotiations with local government 
• Partnered with Start Small, Think Big to provide legal services, including commercial contract drafting, to local under-resourced entrepreneurs, particularly those in marginalized communities  ​​

EDUCATION

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Berkeley, CA
​J.D., Certificate for the Law & Technology Program, May 2016

• Development Editor, California Law Review (2015–16)
• Senior Annual Review Editor, Berkeley Technology Law Journal (2015–16)
• Symposium Editor, Berkeley Technology Law Journal (2014–15)
• Co-President; Boalt Healthcare and Biotechnology Law Society (2014–15)
• Halloum Negotiations Competition (2014)​

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Stanford University, Stanford, CA  
B.A. with honors, Human Biology (minor in Creative Writing), June 2013

• Phi Beta Kappa
• Departmental Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis Presentation

Oaksterdam University, Oakland, CA         
​Advanced Classic Cannabis Seminar, January 2018

PUBLICATIONS

Foreword for Berkeley Technology Law Journal Annual Review (2016)
The Lexmark Test for False Advertising Standing: When Two Prongs Don’t Make a Right (2015) 
Open Data Literature Review for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Symposium in April 2015

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