William Gaede > McDermott Will & Emery LLP > Silicon Valley, United States > Lawyer Profile

Global head of the IP practice group William Gaede who splits his time between Silicon Valley and San Franciso, and global head of the patent prosecution group and ‘well-recognized thought leader’ Ahsan Shaikh who splits his time between Silicon Valley and Chicago, oversee the practice at McDermott Will & Emery LLP. The team is highlighted for its ‘distinctive ability to focus on their client’s key value drivers’. The design and implementation of patent filing strategies and the management of portfolios forms a predominant portion of the team’s workload; it notably works on patent application drafting and examination strategies for Meta Platforms. Life sciences and tech are the focus areas for the group. Team changes include the departures of Michael Fogarty, Tokashi Saito and Tomoki Tanida to Rimon PC and of Jenny Chen to Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C..

Acting for a diverse consortium of clients across fintech, insurance, transport and pharma sectors, among others, McDermott Will & Emery LLP capitalizes on its deep bench strength across the North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions to manage and safeguard brands through strategic counselling and enforcement. The practice is jointly spearheaded by Chicago-based Christina Martini, who bolsters the practice with her expansive expertise across trademark, copyright, social media and domain name mandates, and Silicon Valley-based William Gaede, who deploys his vast experience in the medical industry to assist high-profile clients. Chicago’s Jennifer Mikulina contributes her wide-ranging expertise across trademark counselling, prosecution, licensing, and enforcement to the practice, while Orange County’s Sarah Bro operates for a plethora of clients across life sciences, fintech, media, real estate sectors. Other key figures include Robert Zelnick and Eleanor Atkins from Washington DC.

Fielding a team of ‘experts in multiple patent lawsuits in pharmaceutical field‘, McDermott Will & Emery LLP represents global and domestic clients in patent litigation across industry sectors, with particular emphasis on the life sciences space. William Gaede in San Francisco leads the global intellectual property practice and acts for biotech, pharma, and medical device companies. Patent litigator Douglas Carsten in Orange County is a life sciences expert, Boston-based IP attorney Sarah Columbia works across the pharma and tech sectors, and Michael Chu in Chicago has a broad IP practice. The group also includes IP litigators Thomas Steindler in Washington DC, Shane Nichols in Atlanta, and Kevin Meek in Austin, and New-York based lawyer Simon Roberts, who handles patent infringement cases for major pharma companies.

One client suggests that McDermott Will & Emery LLP fields ‘best trial team in the patent litigation space,’ and the practice is sought after by clients seeking both to protect their novel drugs and enforce them in the face of infringements. Beyond this, the firm is able to provide support across myriad matters, including stock and asset deals, M&As and partnerships in the industry. Jointly leading the team alongside her are Douglas Carsten, an Orange County-based specialist in life sciences patent disputes who helps clients protect pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices, and Silicon Valley’s William Gaede, a fellow patent litigator who specializes in antibodies, proteins and small molecules. Also in Silicon Valley, Bhanu Sadasivan litigates patent disputes concerning recombinant DNA technology. Vernessa Pollard and Anisa Mohanty departed the firm in February 2024.