Fish & Richardson has announced that three of its principals – Juanita Brooks, Dr. Teresa Lavoie, and Dorothy Whelan – were selected by Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) magazine as among the “Top 250 Women in IP” in the world, for the third consecutive year. According to MIP, the list “recognizes female practitioners in private practice who have performed exceptionally for their clients and firms in the past year.”
A nationally recognized trial and appellate lawyer, Brooks’ stellar record and impressive reputation have made her one of the most sought after IP litigators in the country. Brooks recently won a Federal Circuit affirmance of a reversal of a $200 million patent damages verdict against client Gilead Sciences after proving Merck had forfeited its right to assert its hepatitis C drug patents against Gilead because of litigation and business misconduct constituting unclean hands. The case is part of Gilead’s worldwide, complex patent battle with Merck and Idenix (now owned by Merck) over Gilead’s patents on its multi-billion dollar hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi® and Harvoni®. She also won a jury verdict for Microsoft last year against well-known patent assertion entity Parallel Networks. Brooks currently serves on the firm’s Management Committee.
Dr. Lavoie’s national practice focuses on strategic patent counseling, patent prosecution, and portfolio development. With a focus primarily on startups and emerging companies, she often pioneers new ways of protecting breakthrough technologies, and helps clients maximize the value of their intellectual property. Since 2014, Dr. Lavoie has been handling the worldwide patent strategy for Loxo Oncology – a company developing highly selective medicines for genetically defined cancers – which led to a $1.5 billion deal with Bayer in November 2017. For IFM Therapeutics, she rapidly built the company’s patent portfolio for cancer and inflammatory disorder drugs, leading to a $2.3 billion deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb in August 2017. Dr. Lavoie is a member of the firm’s Compensation Committee and leads the firm’s EMPOWER women’s initiative.
As co-chair of Fish’s Post-Grant Practice Group, Whelan oversees the No. 1 ranked firm representing petitioners and respondents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in the country. She has handled well over 100 inter partes review (IPR) and covered business method (CBM) matters involving both challenging and defending patents. In 2017 Whelan led the team that won three much-heralded IPRs for Coherus BioSciences that invalidated three patents covering competitor AbbVie’s blockbuster biologic drug Humira®. These were the first-ever IPR decisions that invalidated patents for AbbVie’s biologic, which was the highest-selling drug in 2016 with $16 billion in global sales. The Coherus case was the most closely watched life sciences IPR of the year because of the broader implications for the entire biosimilar industry. She is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors, and was the first woman to serve on the firm’s Management Committee. Whelan also served on Fish’s Compensation Committee.
MIP selects the Top 250 Women in IP from its global list of IP stars for the year. The IP stars list is based on a weighted system of peer and client feedback, combined with a review of information obtained from surveys.
Fish & Richardson is a global intellectual property firm offering patent prosecution, counseling, and litigation; trademark and copyright prosecution, counseling, and litigation; and commercial litigation services. Established in 1878, and now with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in the U.S. and Europe, our success is rooted in our creative and inclusive culture, which values the diversity of people, experiences, and perspectives. Fish is the No. 1 ranked U.S. patent litigation firm, handling nearly three times as many cases as our nearest competitor; a powerhouse patent and trademark prosecution firm; a top-tier trademark and copyright litigation firm; and the most-active firm at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Fish continues to win cases worth billions in controversy – often by making new law – for the world’s most innovative and influential technology leaders. For more information, visit fr.com or follow us at @FishRichardson.