Curtis Dean Woo Hom

Curtis Hom is an attorney and serves as independent counsel to boards of directors of U.S. public listed companies for their annual board self-evaluation process and related matters.  He is the founder of Innova Legal Group, PLLC, and is outside legal counsel to technology companies for business strategy, software licensing and online subscription programs, and technology standards engagements. He also serves or has served as a board member of two national non-profit organizations: the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies () and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association ().

Mr. Hom is adjunct faculty at the University of Washington School of Law where he teaches intellectual property licensing to postgraduate law students.  He also is an advisory committee member of the Slade Gorton International Policy Center at The National Bureau of Asian Research ().  He is a regular speaker, and has presented on corporate director selection, intellectual property, business development and technology standards organizations in the U.S. and Asia. 

Prior to founding Innova Legal Group, Mr. Hom was a senior attorney at Microsoft Corporation headquarters where he supported strategic corporate engagements at domestic and international technical standards organizations, and international OEM software licensing to PC and mobile device manufacturers. He previously served as senior legislative staff to U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, for whom he drafted and generated bipartisan support for the Chinese Student Protection Act which was signed into law in 1992.  He also provided primary staff support for legislation and debate on the 1991 amendments to the Civil Rights Act, concerning which Senator Gorton played a strategic behind-the-scenes role and regularly addressed on the Senate floor. (See, e.g., ?r102:1:./temp/~r102nnor9c:e47:).

After graduating from the University of Minnesota and the Columbia University School of Law and spending two years as an international student and law lecturer at Peking University, Mr. Hom started his legal career in the corporate transactions and taxation department of a prominent Seattle law firm. 

Mr. Hom grew up in rural Minnesota where he learned how to drive grain trucks, operate a wheat combine harvester, perform manual labor and restore an antique automobile.  He quickly learned that a life of physically strenuous work in a small town was not well-suited for him, so he decided to go to college, attend law school, travel and work in major cities in the US and abroad. 

He resides with his wife (a former attorney whom he met while studying in China) in Kirkland, Washington, about a mile from the original Costco headquarters.  They have two daughters in college, a teenage son and a golden retriever. 

Additional professional information about Mr. Hom can be found on the web at ().