In less than four years at Intellectual Ventures, where she is a VP and chief litigation counsel, Melissa Finocchio’s accomplishments include building a team of in-house litigators who’ve created a “formidable portfolio” of pending litigation and generated significant revenue through settlements. Finocchio, who graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law, started her legal career at Cooley and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Q: How’d you end up in this job?