Allen R. Grogan is an attorney and high technology executive with more than 25 years of experience working with software, internet and entertainment industry companies and entrepreneurs.   He has served as a senior executive and general counsel at both public and private companies.

He is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Jazz Semiconductor, Inc., in Newport Beach, California.  Jazz, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tower Semiconductor, Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM) manufactures highly integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductors used in devices such as set-top boxes, cellular phones, wireless local area networking devices, digital TVs, gaming devices, switches, routers and broadband modems.  Prior to its merger with Tower in September 2008, Grogan was Senior Vice President and Chief Legal officer at Jazz Technologies, Inc. (AMEX: JAZ), where he worked to secure financing and consummate a merger between Jazz Technologies and Jazz Semiconductor that closed in early 2007.

Prior to Jazz, he spent six years as a key executive formulating corporate strategy, structuring strategic alliances and securing venture capital financing for Viacore, Inc., a B2B supply chain solution company.  At Viacore he managed and coordinated all of the company’s legal work as well as identified, evaluated and executed strategies to acquire technology and create value through alliances and partnerships.  Grogan was instrumental in raising more than $85 million in investment from firms including Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, FedEx, HP, Intel, SOFTBANK Capital, Tech Data and VantagePoint Venture Partners.  He was involved in formulating corporate strategy since the company’s earliest days as a startup; was the primary negotiator and team leader in equity investments, technology licensing, alliance agreements and international ventures; and played a leading role in structuring and negotiating the sale of the company to IBM.

Before Viacore, Grogan headed the high technology transactional practice at Blanc Williams Johnston & Kronstadt, a Los Angeles firm nationally recognized for its expertise in the representation of clients in the computer and online industries.  (The law firm subsequently merged with Arnold and Porter.)  For twenty years, Grogan's practice emphasized licensing, distribution, proprietary rights and transactional matters relating to computers and high technology, including structuring of strategic alliances and partnerships; venture capital; copyright, trade secret, patent and other intellectual property issues; software and computer equipment acquisition; software licensing; software development; software and equipment maintenance and support; technology outsourcing; information security and confidentiality; and failed computer system issues and disputes.   

He is nationally recognized as a pioneer and a leading attorney in the representation of computer and high technology clients.  In addition, Grogan has represented clients in the music, motion picture and television industries, and was one of the first attorneys with expertise and experience in both entertainment and high technology. 

Prior to joining Blanc Williams Johnston & Kronstadt, Grogan was an attorney with Irell and Manella in Los Angeles.  

Computer and telecommunications industry clients for which Mr. Grogan worked while in private practice ranged from small startups to large publicly traded companies, and included, among others, America Online, Americast, Andersen Consulting, Ashton-Tate, Atari, Bell South, Borland International, the Cole-Gilburne Fund, Davidson & Associates, Digital Equipment Corporation, EDS, First Data Corporation, Ingram Micro, Lotus Development, MAI Systems, Merisel, Microsoft, Netscape Communications, Quarterdeck, RCC, Silicon Graphics, SBC and Time Warner Interactive.  He also advised numerous non-computer industry clients with respect to transactions relating to technology and proprietary rights, including American Express, City of Hope, Creative Artists Agency, Michael Crichton, Cyprus Minerals Corporation, the County of Los Angeles, Pfizer, Playboy, Starbucks and Utah Power and Light.   

In 1984 Grogan co-founded The Computer and Internet Lawyer (originally known as The Computer Lawyer), a monthly publication of Aspen Publishing Law & Business.  Now in its twenty-sixth year of publication, this is the leading professional journal devoted to legal issues relating to the computer and online industries.  For more than fifteen years Grogan served as co-editor-in-chief of this publication, and he continues to serve as a consulting editor.    

Grogan has also served on the editorial boards of The Cyberspace Lawyer, a monthly publication of Glasser LegalWorks, and The Journal of Internet Law, a monthly publication of Aspen Publishing Law & Business. He is the co-author and co-editor of the book Business and Legal Guide to Online-Internet Law, published in 1997 by Glasser LegalWorks, and a former Vice-Chairman of the American Bar Association Computer Law Division of the Section of Science and Technology.  

Grogan has been a frequent writer and speaker at legal and industry conferences in the United States and internationally, including Japan, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Brazil.  He has authored dozens of articles on topics including outsourcing and service bureau contracts, taxation of hardware and software, licensing and acquisition of content for new media works and proprietary rights.

He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from Oberlin College, where he received a National Merit Scholarship and was elected to membership in Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.  Grogan earned a master’s degree in communications management from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California and a J.D. degree from the University of Southern California Law Center, where he served on the USC Law Review. 

He is an active supporter of theatre, arts and music programs, including the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, the Hollywood Bowl, the Jazz and Heritage Foundation (which oversees the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival), Laguna Playhouse, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Ojai Music Festival,  MKNMM Charities (which oversees The Ponderosa Stomp), South Coast Repertory Theater, and UCLA Live.