Dean W. Harvey

Dean is a partner in the Technology Transactions and Privacy group of Perkins Coie LLP, an international law firm with over 1,000 lawyers in 19 offices across the U.S. and Asia. Dean focuses his practice on technology-related commercial transactions, product counseling, and data privacy and security. He assists clients in acquiring and developing intellectual property, technology, software and other technology-related services. Dean has counseled FORTUNE 100 clients, mid-tier clients and start-ups on AI and machine learning, product compliance, privacy and security, large software development projects, strategic alliances, the creation and operation of cloud platforms, and data and technology licensing transactions. 

Dean is also the co-chair of Perkins Coie's Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Robotics group. He has advised AI vendors in projects involving issues such as fraud detection, disease risk prediction, disease condition prediction, and image recognition and identification. He has assisted buyers in obtaining AI solutions in areas such as pricing optimization, claims editing, RPA and e-commerce site optimization. 

Dean began his legal career at Vinson Elkins LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Texas. There Dean became an equity partner within three years of graduating law school by developing a technology transactions practice. He was a partner at Vinson Elkins for over a decade. During that time, he became the chair of the firm's Internet Practice, and ultimately served as the firm's Chief Knowledge Officer. 

Dean began his technical career immediately after graduating from WVU in 1986 in the Research and Development department at Electronic Data Systems, Inc. in Dallas, Texas. There he developed an expert system running on a Sun Microsystems server to perform the tasks of a human mainframe operator via a 3270 terminal emulator. He also developed applications using a fourth-generation language comprised exclusively of provably correct code constructs, and he developed a virtual hypercube. 

Dean transitioned to developing communication device drivers for IBM's AIX operating system, including Token Ring and Ethernet device drivers. After a few years, he became the Lead Software Architect on a project at CalComp Technologies in New Hampshire to develop a graphics terminal emulator. He finally returned to Texas to be responsible for the I/O subsystem of the IBM microkernel, which supported IBM's OS2/Warp operating system. As his final technical project while in law school, Dean ported the IBM microkernel to a symmetric I/O multi-processor system. 

Dean has been ranked continuously since 2003 as one of the leading technology & outsourcing lawyers in Texas by Chambers & Partners USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers, and since 2006 as a leading practitioner of technology law by the Best Lawyers in America. He has served on the Advisory Board of The Institute for Law and Technology, and on the planning committee for University of Texas Technology Law Conference. 

He is a member of the Chancellor’s Council for the University of Texas System.