RFK Jr.s Vice Presidential Running Mate!
The UnBreakable Nicole Shanahan
Rising up from childhood poverty propelled by a her vision of the potential for new technologies to improve the practice of law, Nicole Shanahan also rose to prominence in the tech world through her marriage to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. and her dissillusionment with the state of modern politics and medicine ultimately led her to become a potent advocate and activist for massive reform in these and other important fields.
Seeing through the media disinformation campaign against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Presidential bid Shanahan offered her financial support and ultimately joined the campaign as his running mate.
Although RFK Jr. and Nicole's political strategy has recently metamorphosed she has become increasingly active in her advocacy for important changes and looks to be an increasingly consequential force upon the future of the United States.
Here we'll explore her story!
Nicole's Early Life:
Impoverished in America
Nicole Shanahan's childhood was marked by hardship, resilience, and an early sense of responsibility, shaped largely by her family’s financial struggles.
Born in Placer County in 1985, Shanahan grew up in Oakland, California in a working-class family that faced significant adversity. Her Irish-American father suffered from mental health substance abuse challenges, a situation that profoundly impacted the family’s dynamic and financial stability. Nicole’s childhood was anything but easy.
Shanahan's mother, a Chinese immigrant, played a pivotal role in keeping the family afloat during difficult times. Her mother had moved from Guangzhu, China in the 1980s, working as a maid and later as an accountant.
Her work ethic and determination to provide for her children despite the family’s financial hardships left a lasting impression on Nicole. Shanahan has spoken about how her mother worked multiple low-paying jobs to ensure that the family could meet their basic needs.
In interviews, Shanahan has reflected on her mother’s sacrifices and how they shaped her own outlook on life. “My mom worked incredibly hard. We were living in a rented apartment, and she would work late shifts as a waitress, then come home and make sure we had everything we needed for school,” Shanahan once recounted, emphasizing her deep admiration for her mother’s resilience. "She gave me the example of how to persevere in the face of adversity."
Early Work Experiences
Growing up in poverty forced Shanahan to develop a strong sense of responsibility at a young age. By the time she was 12, she had already started working to contribute to her family’s income. One of her first jobs was bussing tables at a local restaurant, a job she took to help support her household.
By the age of 15, she had moved up to being a hostess at a more upscale establishment, and she vividly remembers showing her tip money to her mother, who was amazed by how much Nicole was able to contribute
During her teenage years, she also worked as a receptionist at a law firm, which gave her early exposure to the legal profession. This experience helped her solidify her interest in law, a career path she would later pursue.
Nicole's Educational Journey
Despite the financial struggles, Shanahan excelled academically. After graduating from Saint Mary's College High School in Berkely California her intellectual curiosity and desire for more significant opportunities led her to the University of Puget Sound in Washington.
Shanahan attended college on an “enormous merit scholarship,” which helped her overcome the financial barriers that might otherwise have prevented her from pursuing higher education.
There she studied Asian Studies, Economics, and Mandarin Chinese. Her academic pursuits reflected her interest in understanding global economic systems and their intersections with law and technology.
At the University of Puget Sound, Shanahan was part of the varsity cross-country team, which gave her an outlet for both her physical energy and competitive spirit.
Looking back, her collegiate peers have described her as fiercely driven and determined to make a difference in the world.
Completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Puget Sound in 2007 Shanahan tested her feet in the legal field working as an intern, patent specialist and paralegal at the patent risk management firm or rather, 'defensive patent aggregator', RPX Corporation between the years 2006-2008.
While tying up her undergrad studies in the 2006 to 2007 Nicole also worked as an IP Paralegal at Aeon Law Group (formerly Axios Law Group) in Seattle, focusing on patent portfolio management and gaining practical experience in intellectual property law
Early Legal Work and Study in China
Shanahan also began to build her international connections and knowledge at this point in her early legal working career. from 2007 to 2008 she served as a Consultant to the International Practice Group at Longan Law Firm in Beijing, China. During her time there she worked on international patent law issues and gained insights into China's legal system.
The International Practice Group at Longan Law typically deals with clients and cases that involve cross-border legal issues, particularly those related to patent litigation, international business transactions, and global trade. This position allowed Shanahan to develop a nuanced understanding of the intersection between Eastern and Western IP law, which later shaped her approach to founding ClearAccessIP, a company focused on automating and managing patent processes globally.
After returning to the U.S., Shanahan joined Rutan & Tucker LLP as an IP Paralegal and Database Specialist in March of 2009. Working out of the firm's office in Costa Mesa, California, she focused on intellectual property law.
Her time at Longan was part of a broader professional development path that included work at several other firms. Shanahan’s international experience, combined with her fluency in Mandarin Chinese and background in Asian Studies, made her uniquely equipped to navigate both the U.S. and Chinese legal systems—a valuable skill in a globally connected world where intellectual property management spans multiple countries.
Further Deeper Studies Into Law and Technology
Becoming an Official Lawyer
Having tested the waters of the legal profession - having actually worked for several law firms, and even having forged international connections and allegiances, Nicole was confident that wanted to specialize in patent law. Now the next step was to go back to school, earn her Law degree and actually become a full fledged lawyer!
She began her graduate level studies at Santa Clara University School of Law in 2011 and her time there was marked by a focus on intellectual property (IP) law, legal technology, and innovation - areas in which the school has a strong reputation, particularly through its High Tech Law Institute.
Santa Clara is known for producing graduates who excel in the intersection of law, technology, and business, and the school provided Shanahan with ample opportunities to explore her passion for innovation in legal processes. She was particularly focused on applying technologies to enhance the efficiency of patent systems, which later became the foundation for her career and the development of ClearAccessIP.
While at Santa Clara, Shanahan organized and led several initiatives related to technology and the law. Notably, she was involved in organizing the 30th anniversary symposium of the Santa Clara High Tech Law Journal, which focused on the emerging legal issues surrounding the sharing economy.
This symposium highlighted how technology platforms were disrupting traditional legal frameworks, a theme that mirrored her growing interest in automating and streamlining legal processes
One of Shanahan’s most influential mentors at Santa Clara was Professor Colleen Chien, a leading expert in intellectual property law and a former senior advisor for IP and innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Chien is also known for coining the term "patent assertion entity" (often referred to as "patent trolls").
Shanahan, with her specialized focus in IP and high-technology law, benefited immensely from Chien’s mentorship, particularly in the areas of patent law and innovation policy.
A noteworthy project they worked on together was the Best Practices in Patent Litigation Survey, which was published in 2013. This project, designed to evaluate recent reforms and proposed practices in patent litigation, involved extensive collaboration between Chien, Shanahan, and other legal scholars.
The survey helped assess the effectiveness of legislative reforms in the patent system and provided critical data from both in-house counsel and outside legal experts in technology companies. Shanahan's involvement in this project demonstrated her growing expertise in patent law and legal data analysis.
Mentorship with Professor Colleen Chien
During her time at Santa Clara, Shanahan's work extended beyond the classroom. She held internships and externships at various law firms, gaining hands-on experience in patent litigation and IP management. These experiences gave her a practical understanding of the inefficiencies within the patent system, which she later sought to address through her legal tech startup, ClearAccessIP. Her legal education also had a strong focus on entrepreneurship, as Santa Clara University fosters a culture of innovation, especially in Silicon Valley's dynamic legal landscape.
Graduation, Recognition and Leadership
By the time Shanahan graduated with her Juris Doctor (JD) in 2014, she had established herself as a thought leader in the field of legal technology. In 2014, shortly after earning her JD, she was named one of LegalTech News' "18 Millennials Changing the Face of Legal Tech".
This recognition was a testament to her forward-thinking approach to law and technology, as well as her drive to reform the legal field through innovation.
Nicole's graduation from Santa Clara meant that she had completed her essential legal education- and then some - and could now take the Bar exam and become an official lawyer. but she knew that she needed to further her knowledge of technology and how to integrate it with the Law - and with that mission in mind she enrolled to Stanford Law School and its CodeX legal tech pro her education in law and technology
In 2013, before Nicole was completely done at Santa Clara and just before she started to attend CodeX at Stanford, Shanahan further expanded her global legal expertise by again visiting Asia and studying at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as part of an exchange program.
Known for its focus on IP law and global trade, Singapore's National University was an ideal place for Shanahan to further her understanding of international patent law, especially given China and Southeast Asia's growing role in global IP disputes.
Exchange Program at
National University of Singapore
Stanford Law and CodeX - The Completion of Nicole's Legal Education
CodeX is a Stanford initiative created in response to the recognition that the efficiency of legal processes could be significantly enhanced by using new computational technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence - and that these improvements can in turn massively help to democratize access to legal services.
With the brilliant minds involved in its development and Stanford’s close ties to Silicon Valley CodeX has quickly grown to become a global leader in the legal technology field of research.
Now Nicole was ready for the final step in her official legal education and the perfect school where she could master the blend of Law and cutting edge technology was Stanford – the birthplace of Google and so many of today’s other top tech platforms.
And Shanahan wasn’t just heading to Stanford in general but to the Stanford Law School’s recently created CodeX Center for Legal Informatics – an ideal match for her goals.
Shanahan’s time at Stanford Law School’s CodeX was a crucial period that helped define and refine her future career in legal technology and intellectual property management. As a Resident Fellow at CodeX from 2014 to 2016, she pursued projects that combined her legal expertise with emerging technologies. She took courses in legal informatics and computational law as well as AI in the legal field.
And in a more technical sense and for more business-specific purposes she specialized in the skills of a legal technologist such in the utilization of APIs (Application Programming Interface), structured databases, UI/UX (user interface/user experience, automation and SaaS (software as a service).
While involved at CodeX Nicole worked to formulate an economic theory entitled “Coasean Mapping” that could predict the pace and nature of society’s adoption of legal artificial intelligence worked on projects such as The Stanford Open Data Initiative which aimed to democratize access to legal data by making it available to the public – a skill-set she would soon put to direct use in her own business.
In the Smart Prosecution Project in collaboration with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Shanahan contributed to the analysis of police misconduct data using advanced legal data tools. This was part of her broader mission to apply technology for social justice and criminal justice reform
Next we'll move on to the later better known portion of Nicole's life thus far - in which she has even become a kind of celebrity, enduring plenty of controversy as well as successes, happiness along with tragedies.
And as we'll see, transcending her materialistic level of success she has become a compassionate and determined leading heroic figure working for change in several of the most important issues of our day. And all that while holding on to her sense of humor and trust in goodness.
ON TO THE NEXT SECTION ...
Nicole becomes a
successful entrepreneur
... and a bit of a celebrity!
ON TO THE NEXT SECTION ...