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It’s a wild time to be Meta. Just ask Associate General Counsel for IP Litigation Kyanna Sabanoglu, who manages some of the most high-profile AI litigation in the world. The cases she handles will likely help write new chapters on the technology’s role in a whole host of different applications.
This year, Sabanoglu will head into summary judgement for a massive copyright lawsuit claiming that Meta trained its Llama open-source AI models on thousands of books. It’s one of many suits from creators as ideologically diverse as comedian Sarah Silverman and conservative stalwart Mike Huckabee.
At the same time, Sabanoglu will be defending Meta against a suit from translation company Dialect. Dialect claims that Meta and Salesforce have infringed on five of its patents related to AI assistants.
“You have to be OK with not having an answer to a question right now.”
Kyanna Sabanoglu
After years as outside counsel at firms Milbank and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Sabanoglu admits it can sometimes be difficult not to get more involved in the actual litigation. “I remember sitting in my first deposition as an in-house attorney and fighting with myself,” the AGC recalls. “I wanted to be the person asking the questions. But eventually, you learn to trust your amazing outside counsel and focus on the bigger picture. That’s why I wanted to be an in-house counsel in the first place, and I had to learn to adjust that perspective over time.”
In college, Sabanoglu found herself alone at a lab table, wondering if this was how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. The future lawyer hated the isolation and approached her advisor about other career options. Two weeks later, she signed up for the LSAT.
“It all happened so quickly,” Sabanoglu says. “It’s funny because I think my advisor recommended IP because his son had just taken the patent bar, and so it was top of mind. In my case, it was the absolute right move.”
Sabanoglu began her practice at Milbank under the tutelage of famed IP litigator Errol Taylor. Sabanoglu says working under one of the few prominent Black attorneys in the IP space gave her the confidence that she, too, belonged there. Six months after starting, she landed her first trial.
“That wasn’t unusual for Errol, to give a young attorney that opportunity,” Sabanoglu says. “He wanted us to work a case from start to finish to get that experience. It was amazing.”
At Gibson, Sabanoglu received great mentorship from partner Benjamin Hershkowitz. “Your mentors don’t always have to look like you,” Sabanoglu says. “Ben was my champion, and I’m grateful for how he looked out for me.”
At Meta, Sabanoglu has found what she was seeking while working in firms. After two years, she was promoted to her current role, where her purview has continued to expand into matters that sometimes fall beyond strictly IP.
After adding privacy work to her docket, Sabanoglu sought out to become a Certified Information Privacy Professional in 2023. That knowledge has come in handy for product-related matters like the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
The attorney relishes the opportunity to think more holistically about the company’s IP portfolio and its future rather than on a case-by-case basis. “Your decisions now have an impact across hundreds of different cases,” Sabanoglu explains. “But that means you’re not always going to be a subject matter expert. You have to be OK with not having an answer to a question right now.”
Sabanoglu’s workload shows no signs of lightening anytime soon. The attorney says Meta is currently working on its next-generation AI models, which is almost guaranteed to draw interesting IP and litigation questions from all over the world. She’s also got two privacy cases that will be keeping her busy over the next year.
“I remember sitting in my first deposition as an in-house attorney and fighting with myself. I wanted to be the person asking the questions. But eventually, you learn to trust your amazing outside counsel and focus on the bigger picture.”
Kyanna Sabanoglu
More broadly, Sabanoglu says she hopes she can be a point of inspiration for young lawyers of color. The lawyer says despite the rhetoric surrounding her employer’s ending of its DEI program, she works on the most diverse team she’s ever been a part of.
“This is a great place for diverse people,” Sabanoglu says. “It’s amazing how many different kinds of people I’ve had the opportunity to learn from.”
Outside her role, Sabanoglu is a regular volunteer at local soup kitchens and an active mentor for the nonprofit TechGirlz, which encourages middle school girls to get involved in STEM. It’s another way to give back, another way to help motivate girls to follow their dreams, and a chance to be the kind of mentor Sabanoglu has benefited from throughout her career.
“My colleagues and I have worked with Kyanna for the better part of a decade, both when she was a stellar young associate at Gibson Dunn working on our IP matters, and now that she’s in house at Meta. Kyanna is incredibly smart, strategic, thoughtful, and practical. She has a broad and deep understanding of the technology and the law at issue in each of her cases, and always knows what questions to ask and how to move matters forward. We feel very fortunate to work with her!”
–Diana Feinstein, Partner at Gibson Dunn
“Kyanna brings a nuanced and strategic approach to intellectual property litigation at Meta, where she skillfully navigates the complexities of IP rights and technology. It’s a privilege to partner with her on these ever-evolving issues.”
–Alison Stein, Co-Chair of Content, Media, and Entertainment Practice
