Amy Kao

Amy Kao is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies. She has deep experience in design thinking as a mission-driven, solutions-oriented leader, through two decades in private practice and higher education. Amy previously served as in-house counsel for Catalina Marketing Corporation, a mergers & acquisitions and securities attorney at K&L Gates LLP, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School, and a lecturer at Boston University School of Law. Amy has been lauded by her clients as a strategic business partner and trusted legal advisor in innovation, compliance, transactions, corporate governance, and negotiations.

While in-house at Catalina Marketing Corporation, she led and managed contracts management teams, delivering $6.1B in consumer value, designed data use and governance programs, negotiated business critical data network agreements, and oversaw product development, legal training, automation, and operations, intellectual property portfolios, and all cross-functional pre-litigation compliance and collaboration with tax, finance, and internal audit. She also led her company’s patent and invention review committee, formed and chaired the company’s data usage committee, directed the legal team’s training and internship program, and served as an executive officer of all 8 company-affiliated domestic subsidiaries.

Additionally, in her practice as a corporate, mergers & acquisitions, and securities attorney at K&L Gates LLP, she represented leading universities, including Duke University and The Juilliard School and many well-known public and private companies, especially in the medical device, security, consumer packaged goods, and natural foods spaces, and advised on deals with a host of other industries along the way. She also served on the firm’s hiring committee.

Beyond legal practice, Amy has served on the boards of many corporate and non-profit entities, including professional and industry associations such as the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts and the Monte Jade Science and Technology Association of New England, charitable, education-oriented, and other organizations with global vision and reach.

In her pro bono service, she has represented non-profits supporting healthcare access, education, women in science, the performing arts, and global youth and community development.

Amy was a visiting clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Transactional Law Clinic. She was also a lecturer at Boston University School of Law where she taught courses on effective in-house counseling, and on drafting and negotiating transactional contracts to build thriving businesses.

Amy has published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and is a frequent speaker on topics of business, entrepreneurship, law, mentoring, and cross-border transactions, addressing universities, bar and trade associations, and embassies. She is licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.