Sarita Venkat
Sarita Venkat on LinkedIn 
Sarita Venkat leads Cisco's Corporate Legal Affairs organization, a global team of 70 attorneys and legal professionals who ensure Cisco is well-governed, protected, and positioned to grow.
She oversees corporate governance and securities, litigation, antitrust, brand protection, procurement, and M&A legal integration. As the head of litigation, she oversees worldwide matters and led Cisco to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory in June 2026, as well as the reversal of a $2.75 billion trial judgment, one of the most significant wins in company history. She also led the legal execution of Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, closing it in a record six months. She advises executive leadership on corporate governance and risk, and she is driving the organization's adoption of AI to modernize how legal work gets done.
Before joining Cisco in 2022, Sarita spent more than a decade at Apple, where she rose to Head of Global IP Licensing and set worldwide licensing strategy for one of the most valuable technology portfolios in the world and drove highly complex deals and strategic transactions. Her earlier career includes building the technology transactions function at ServiceNow, managing global patent litigation at Abbott Laboratories, and trial work at Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
Beyond Cisco, Sarita serves on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, the ABA AI Committee, ChIPs, and the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. Her work has earned her recognition as a Silicon Valley Business Journal Woman of Influence and Corporate Counsel of the Year from the South Asian Bar Association. She holds a J.D. and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Missouri.
Sarita Venkat leads Cisco's Corporate Legal Affairs organization, a global team of 70 attorneys and legal professionals who ensure Cisco is well-governed, protected, and positioned to grow.
She oversees corporate governance and securities, litigation, antitrust, brand protection, procurement, and M&A legal integration. As the head of litigation, she oversees worldwide matters and led Cisco to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory in June 2026, as well as the reversal of a $2.75 billion trial judgment, one of the most significant wins in company history. She also led the legal execution of Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, closing it in a record six months. She advises executive leadership on corporate governance and risk, and she is driving the organization's adoption of AI to modernize how legal work gets done.
Before joining Cisco in 2022, Sarita spent more than a decade at Apple, where she rose to Head of Global IP Licensing and set worldwide licensing strategy for one of the most valuable technology portfolios in the world and drove highly complex deals and strategic transactions. Her earlier career includes building the technology transactions function at ServiceNow, managing global patent litigation at Abbott Laboratories, and trial work at Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
Beyond Cisco, Sarita serves on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, the ABA AI Committee, ChIPs, and the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. Her work has earned her recognition as a Silicon Valley Business Journal Woman of Influence and Corporate Counsel of the Year from the South Asian Bar Association. She holds a J.D. and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Missouri.
