James Denaro
james@cipher.law
Jim is a highly-experienced intellectual property attorney guiding innovative technology companies through rapidly evolving and high-stakes business landscapes. He has significant experience advising companies as they scale from early-stage/high-growth private companies through IPO while counseling on intellectual property strategies, competitive intelligence, risk mitigation, and other strategic matters.
His intellectual property practice includes developing domestic and international patent and trademark portfolios, analyzing competitor patent portfolios and litigation support. He is experienced in strategic patent counseling and commercial disputes involving complex technical issues and has served as associate general counsel for intellectual property at a major cybersecurity company.
Jim has a strong track record in building portfolios of investment-grade patents that serve as valuable assets for companies. His work focuses on creating patent portfolios that can be leveraged as collateral for financing. He has developed patent strategies that enhance a company's appeal to investors, demonstrating innovation potential and positioning businesses for successful fundraising.
Jim's work in cryptography intellectual property includes developing the foundational patents on Functional Encryption and Attribute-Based Encryption and prosecuting them at the USPTO into a portfolio which was ultimately purchased.
Jim has expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is currently a degree candidate at the University of Texas at Austin for a Masters of Science in Artificial Intelligence, and has completed coursework in Advances in Deep Learning, among others.
He has completed professional coursework at MIT and Stanford in computer security and cryptography. He also has technical certifications from the Cloud Security Alliance and Cisco Systems and has passed the CISSP examination. Before founding CipherLaw, Jim was with the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster.
The University of Texas at Austin (M.S. Artificial Intelligence [candidate])
Georgetown University Law Center, LL.M., National Security Law
Tulane Law School, J.D.
Georgia Institute of Technology, B.S., Computer Engineering
Tufts University, B.A.
Joseph Carolan
joseph@cipher.law
Joseph Carolan is a researcher in quantum information and theoretical computer science, and a Technical Advisor to CipherLaw. His work addresses both the capabilities and the rigorous limits of quantum computers, with particular interest in quantum query complexity and its connections to algorithms and cryptography.
A substantial, recent line of his work concerns the post-quantum security of cryptographic primitives based on the sponge construction, the design underlying the NIST standardized and widely used SHA-3 family of hash functions. With coauthors, he has established quantum one-wayness and quantum indifferentiability of the sponge in the random permutation model, results that bear on how widely deployed hash functions resist quantum adversaries. He has also developed compressed-oracle techniques for analyzing the quantum random permutation model more broadly.
His algorithmic work establishes optimality and lower bounds in several settings, including translation-invariant quantum algorithms for ordered search, parallel quantum query complexity, and lower bounds for the quantum simulation of fluid dynamics. In collaboration with physicists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other institutions, he has also studied dynamical quantum phase transitions and entanglement tomography in lattice gauge theory, running quantum hardware for simulations.
Joseph's research has appeared in the Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS), the International Cryptology Conference (CRYPTO), and PRX Quantum. He was a Lanczos Graduate Fellow at the University of Maryland from 2022 to 2024, and has given talks on the post-quantum security of SHA-3, compressed oracles, and quantum money.
He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, advised by Professor Andrew Childs, and conducts his research at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) and the NSF Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS).
University of Maryland, PhD candidate, Computer Science (Quantum Information)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, B.S., Computer Science, B.S., Physics
Melissa Silverman
melissa@cipher.law
Melissa Silverman, Esq., is a legal expert specializing in governmental policy and regulatory developments, with a strong emphasis on tracking and analyzing federal and state regulations in artificial intelligence. She closely monitors legislative updates and advises clients seeking to shape AI policy and compliance strategies. Her work ensures that enterprises stay ahead of evolving regulatory landscapes, mitigating risks and capitalizing on emerging opportunities in the AI sector.
Melissa also handles licensing arrangements and disputes involving intellectual property, including trademark, copyright, design patents, and contractual matters in both state and federal courts.
Her commercial litigation background spans both the public and private sectors. She spent over a decade advocating for the U.S. Government in administrative and civil cases, including those addressing government noncompliance and civil fraud in the banking and financial sectors. As Assistant General Counsel in the Office of Program Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, she played a critical role in cases concerning mortgage lending and servicing practices, often collaborating with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Melissa has also represented corporate and individual clients in intellectual property and contract disputes in federal and state courts, as well as U.S. and international arbitration tribunals. Melissa is licensed to practice law in Georgia, Washington, D.C., and the federal courts.
Tulane Law School, J,D.
George Washington University, M.A.
Syracuse University, B.A.
Ava Wang
ava@cipher.law
Ava Wang is a Legal Researcher supporting patent research, technical analysis, and intellectual property matters involving artificial intelligence, software, and emerging technologies.
Her work includes prior art review, claim-focused research, technical source analysis, and organizing materials used to evaluate patentability, technology development, and competitive positioning. She brings a background in biology, applied research, and technology-focused operations, allowing her to work across technical subject matter involving life sciences, medical devices, and computational tools.
Before joining the firm, Ava supported intellectual property and product launch work for healthcare practices creating medical device technologies. She assisted with patent and IP documentation, conducted market analysis, prepared technical reviews on device efficacy, organized materials for counsel, helped form new entities, and supported product distribution infrastructure.
Her research background includes work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, West Cancer Center, and Washington University School of Medicine, where she contributed to projects involving protein phase behavior, imaging-guided treatment, radiation dosimetry, and translational medical technologies. She also completed a Washington University in St. Louis Fellowship focused on regulatory policy, institutional compliance, and access to information in public education.
Washington University in St Louis, B.A., Biology
