Janice Ta
By Forrest Preece
Janice was born in a refugee camp for Vietnamese boat people in Pulau Bidong, Malaysia, where she contracted polio when she was six months old. Her parents had the choice to obtain medical care with the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland or through Catholic Charities and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. Her parents chose the latter.
While growing up in public housing projects in Dallas, Janice’s family was supported by a rich community of immigrants. The treatments she received at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children were life-changing. “I grew up working with some of the best pediatric orthopedic surgeons in the world,” Janice says. “I aspired to be a doctor like my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Lori Karol, who passed away two years ago.”
However, other academic fields began calling out to her when she was planning her college career. Around 1984, Janice’s family moved to Garland, a Dallas suburb, where her parents still live. Janice graduated from Garland High School in 1997, and attended Stanford, where she earned a B.A. in Art History and a B.S. in Symbolic Systems, where she focused on studies in Human-Computer Interaction. The latter degree’s rigorous course program ranges from computer science to philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and complex math to explore systems that use symbols to understand the world.
Stanford was where she met her husband, John Beavers, who was a graduate student in the school’s linguistics department and a teaching assistant in one of Janice’s classes. They started dating well after she graduated.
After college, Janice became a product designer at Plaxo, Inc., a start-up in Mountain View, California, which was later acquired by Comcast. In Silicon Valley, she saw the rise and fall of the dot-com boom and bust.
When John started teaching linguistics at Georgetown University, Janice followed him to DC where she served as the Interim Director of Disability Mentoring Day at the National Association of People with Disabilities. Inspired by her experiences helping other people improve their lives, she decided she would seek a career in the legal profession.
From 2007-2010, she attended Yale Law School, where she excelled. During her last year in law school, she was the President of the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities. After graduating, she served as a judicial clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.
Janice then joined John in Austin, where he is now Chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas. Austin is a vibrant place to practice her field of intellectual property law. In any given year, the judges in Texas command the dockets for 30-50% of the patent litigation nationwide. Janice is currently practicing at Perkins Cole, an international law firm that specializes in work with tech companies. Her career has flourished. In 2018 and 2019, she was recognized as a Texas Rising Star for her work in the field of intellectual property litigation. And in 2022, she was recognized as one of six Top Women in IP law in Texas.
She represents some of the world’s leading technology companies, so that they can continue to grow and innovate. One of the victories she is most proud of was winning an administrative trial at the International Trade Commission—and doing it with an incredibly diverse team. “The Court not only found that our client did not infringe the patent, it also determined that the complainant lacked an economic industry in the United States worth protecting.” She says that those who practice at this Court know it is rare for defendants to win on this issue. But Janice’s team dissected every relevant license, dug into the case law, and worked closely with an expert to build the defense. “It was a close but unexpected win, and we savored it.”
Janice is also proud of the victories she has achieved for pro bono clients. For instance, she has helped several nonprofits obtain trademarks and copyrights, worked on behalf of a death row inmate, assisted a client in attaining a divorce from an abusive husband, and aided a small business owner in overturning an unfair judgment.
She has always had a wide range of interests in life, and Ballet Austin is a beneficiary of Janice’s talent and intellect. Now that she joined their board, she hopes to help the organization deal with any intellectual property issues it may have. “As a person with a disability, I also want to continue advocating to expand outreach to an often overlooked population that could really benefit from participation in the dance, health, and wellness classes and culture of Ballet Austin. Dance should be for everyone.”
When asked about Austin, she says that she loves the idealism and dynamism of this city. She feels it has a rich intellectual and creative culture that attracts smart people. And she has a great community of intellectual property attorneys who she co-counsels with or opposes. “At the end of the day, we respect each other and can all go out for dinner, even in the most hard-fought cases.”
Janice’s reflections on her career.
As a disabled woman of color and first generation attorney, I had very few role models for how to navigate the law. Before starting as a summer associate at a law firm, I remembered fretting about whether I should even wear a skirt to work – and expose my leg brace – or stick with pants so that other people would feel comfortable. I know now that my job here is not to make other people feel comfortable. My mentor told me that if I ever found myself at a firm where I could not be my authentic self, that’s not a firm where I should stay.
My clients know that I am dedicated to them, and those values that make me a client-oriented attorney—hard work, empathy, and tenacity—come from my experience as a person with a disability, as an immigrant, and as a woman of color. Our perceived differences do not define us. They make us stronger.
For women of color, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to know your worth. Seek out a boardroom of mentors who know your worth, who will be direct with you, and who will look out for you. And then pay it forward to those who follow in your path.
Some quick questions for Janice
- What’s something about you that not many people know?
I love collecting cookbooks and own over 350 of them. Alas, I don’t have a lot of time to cook anymore, but I do enjoy the vibrant dining scene in Austin. - What was your first job?
Working part-time as a jewelry clerk at Prime Art & Jewel at the age of 14, helping to sort and inventory wholesale jewelry. I loved driving to work with my mother in the mornings and having lunch with her. She still works there to this day. My father, now retired, worked for decades as a seafood butcher. My parents came to the US with nothing, but they worked hard to raise a family of three and put each of us through college. I continue to believe that there is dignity in hard work, no matter what your profession. - What makes you happy?
Hanging out with my kids over the weekends, and planning dinner menus and itineraries for food travel. - Which living people do you most admire?
Every day, I am humbled by my parents and other immigrants like them.
