Hoyt and Knight | About Us

Elizabeth ("Liza") Hoyt is admitted to the California Bar and a partner in the firm of Hoyt & Knight. She specializes in business and contract matters, often working with small high tech companies. She has assisted clients in drafting their revenue generating agreements, both for direct business and through channels. By assisting clients in negotiating key contracts with their customers, suppliers, and resellers, she often performs a role similar to that of in-house counsel for those companies not yet large enough to require a full-time lawyer on staff. Liza also has conducted formal and informal training sessions for sales organizations in software licensing and other contract issues. In addition, she often coordinates with Finance organizations on revenue recognition issues that arise in the drafting and negotiation of software contracts.

Liza received her law degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1978, where she served on the University of Florida's Law Review. Prior to that, she graduated with high honors from the University of Maine, Phi Beta Kappa, with a BA degree, majoring in mathematics. Liza worked as in-house counsel for two technology companies (Everex Systems, a personal computer manufacturer, and Informix Software, a database software company) for a total of 10 years in Silicon Valley before starting Hoyt & Knight in 2000. She gained international legal experience working at a Japanese law firm in Tokyo for over 3 years in the late 1980's and then taught International Business Transactions at Santa Clara University School of Law in 1990. Although she does not currently engage in a litigation practice, Liza spent over 4 years as a federal prosecutor in Florida in the early 1980s, so she has significant federal litigation experience. Her hobbies are horseback riding and yoga.