Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia
• Virginia

Court Admissions

• US District Court for the Eastern and Western District of Virginia, and District of Columbia
• US Court of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Federal Circuits
• US Court of Federal Claims 
• US Patent and Trademark Office (inter partes proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board)
• Supreme Court of Virginia
• District of Columbia Court of Appeals

• University of Virginia School of Law, J.D. 1997; Executive Editor, Virginia Tax Review, Editor-in-Chief, Virginia Law Weekly
• Duke University, B.A. 1994, English Literature; cum laude, Certificate in Women’s Studies

• Earned highest performance rating of “outstanding” each year of employment at the USPTO (2011-2020)
• USPTO Director’s Award for Excellence in Presidential transition planning (2021)
• USPTO Special Act Award for assistance with Presidential transition planning (2021)
• USPTO Special Act Award for assistance with agency’s response to COVID-19 (2020)
• Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for Superior Performance (2018)
• Department of Commerce Award for Exceptional Service/“Attorney of the Year” Award (2017)
• USPTO Director’s Award for Excellence in Litigation (2017)
• Appointed Special Assistant United States Attorney, Department of Justice (2017)

Clerkship

• The Honorable James T. Turner, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Washington, D.C. 

Non-Profit Board Member/Director

• Founding Member, former Director, and former General Counsel—Women Under Forty Political Action Committee, a nonpartisan political action committee supporting young women running for state and federal public office.
• Founding Member—Running Start, a nonpartisan group providing leadership training to young women.
• Former Advisory Board Member, STEM for Her, a nonprofit organization encouraging girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
• Former Class Manager, University of Virginia Law School Foundation

Bar Association Member/Chair

• Member, Board of Governors, Virginia State Bar, Section of Intellectual Property
• Permanent member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference
• Former co-chair, American Bar Association Intellectual Property Litigation Committee, Membership Committee, and Section Annual Conference 
• Former elected member, District of Columbia Bar, Law Practice Management Steering Committee
• Former member, Administrative Conference of the United States’ Artificial Intelligence in Federal Agencies project

Select Speeches and Publications

• Panelist, Judges Panel—Perspectives from Both Sides of the Bench, 34th Annual Intellectual Property Section Seminar 2023, Virginia Law Foundation, October 27, 2023
• Panelist, Education in America: Its Past. Its Present. Its Future, Regent University School of Law, Law Review Symposium, October 8, 2022
• Panelist, Managing a Crisis: Preparation, Response, and Lessons Learned, AIPLA Annual Meeting, October 29, 2021
• AI and the Future of Innovation, 18th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Law (ICAIL), Center for AI and Patent Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University, June 25, 2021
• Lead United States Delegation, 2021 Heads of Office meetings, IP5 (meeting of five largest patent offices: US, Korea, Japan, China, and Europe), April and June 2021
• Opening Remarks, Annual Career Achievement Awards Ceremony, USPTO, June 16, 2021
• State of USPTO and Trademark Operations, Trademark Public Advisory Committee Meeting, USPTO, May 21, 2021
• Opening Remarks and Judge, 2021 National Patent Application Drafting Competition Finals, USPTO, April 9, 2021
• Remarks on Leadership, Fireside Chat with Acting Deputy Secretary of Commerce, 2021 Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium, USPTO, March 3, 2021
• The Importance of Industrial Design Protection, International forum on protection of industrial designs, USPTO, February 9, 2021
• Panel Discussion, Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities, Federal Circuit Bar Association, May 28, 2020
• USPTO Policy Priorities, Intellectual Property Law All Hands Meeting, IBM, April 21, 2020
• Panel Discussion, The Role of Innovation Incentives for AI in Health Care, Trust, But Verify: Informational Challenges Surrounding AI-Enabled Clinical Decision Software, Duke University-Margolis Center for Health Policy, January 23, 2020
• Raise the Bar: Real World Solutions for a Troubled Profession (co-author, ABA 2008)

USPTO

• Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director, Office of the Under Secretary and Director
  • Second highest-ranking officer of the USPTO, advising the Director and Department of Commerce leaders on significant legal, policy, and operational issues.
  • Supervised all major legal matters, including intellectual property and administrative law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; advised the Department of Commerce General Counsel, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Appellate Staff, and the Office of the Solicitor General.
  • Led the agency’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group, advising the agency on how to incentivize innovation in emerging technologies.
• Senior Policy Advisor, Acting Chief of Staff, Senior Counsel to the Director, Office of the Under Secretary and Director
  • Principal legal and policy advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, advising on a wide variety of intellectual property and administrative policy issues, including:
    • constitutional challenges to agency proceedings
    • patent eligibility
    • administrative rulemaking
    • pharmaceutical patents
    • artificial intelligence
  • Advised the Director and other senior leaders on significant legal matters, including:
    • intellectual property cases before the U.S. Supreme Court
    • petitions for rehearing en banc and cases of first impression before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
    • administrative appeals to U.S. district courts
• Acting Deputy Solicitor, Office of the General Counsel
  • Supervised intellectual property and administrative litigation for the Office of the Solicitor involving the USPTO as a party or as amicus.
  • Briefed the USPTO Director, the USPTO General Counsel, the U.S. Department of Commerce General Counsel, and other leaders on legal risks and priorities.
• Associate Solicitor, Office of the General Counsel
  • Defended administrative law decisions, patentability decisions, and challenges to USPTO rules, regulations, and procedures in appeals before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Circuit.
  • Served as counsel in over 50 patent cases before U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
  • Served as trial counsel in Hyatt v. USPTO before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in which USPTO sought to apply prosecution laches based on applicant delay and other conduct in 400 related patent applications; managed discovery, motions practice, depositions, witness preparation and examination, pretrial proceedings, bench trial, and appeal.
  • Advised the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Appellate Staff and the Office of the Solicitor General on patent, trademark, and copyright cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including cases on patent exhaustion, enablement, extraterritorial application of intellectual property rights, and patent eligibility. 

Private Practice

• Litigated complex intellectual property cases in district courts throughout the US, including Virginia, Texas, Delaware, Florida, California, Arkansas, and Wisconsin.
• Litigated appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• Represented plaintiff in patent case against a major software   company resulting in jury award of $62.3 million and finding of willful infringement (the eighth largest jury verdict in federal court that year and the then-largest patent infringement jury award in Eastern District of Virginia). 
• Successfully defended a patent infringement case in a jury trial before the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division.
• Defended a $2 billion civil RICO claim against a municipal power district.
• Defended a major automobile manufacture in litigation regarding a dealer incentive program.
• Defended copyright infringement matter involving medical coding.
• Served as assigning attorney for the D.C. intellectual property litigation group.

Other

• Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia
  • Oversaw hundreds of active federal and state court cases and internal investigations, including the independent review of the November 2022 tragedy at the University of Virginia.
  • Supervised 150 attorneys and professionals in the areas of healthcare, education, and social services.
• Principal Lecturer, Regent University School of Law, Virginia Beach, Virginia 
  • Full-time faculty member, teaching first-year Contracts and Appellate Advocacy.
  • Supervised student scholarship in social media regulation, copyright law, and patent law.
  • Faculty advisor for Intellectual Property Law and Entertainment Society.
  • Served as an expert in an international patent dispute for Global 500 technology company.