USA 79 www.lawyer-monthly.com Lawyer Monthly Women in Law Awards 2024 essential. When I was pursuing my Ph.D., I was incredibly fortunate to have a very interdisciplinary doctoral committee that included an organic and natural products chemist, a microbiologist, and an early adopter of computer analytics for exploring complex biochemical relationships. My post-doctoral work was with a remarkable woman who appreciated the role of science in shaping policy and law. My legal career has always been focused on building collaborations to solve complex problems that involve many disciplines. What led you to specialize in such diverse yet interconnected fields as AI, biotechnology, and medical regulatory affairs? Was there a particular moment or case that defined your career path in this direction? All of us were trained as scientists and came to appreciate that law is a necessary and powerful tool. Having a strong technical background is essential, but the key is to be a good communicator. We listen and learn from the creators and then develop ways to communicate with investors, business leaders, policymakers, lawmakers, regulators, and judges. It has been very exciting and challenging to work with many groundbreaking technologies such as molecular diagnostics and therapeutics, pharmaceutical formulations and delivery systems, cell therapies, tissue engineering, antibody technologies, environmentally sustainable systems, natural products and methodologies for nutritional supplements, novel foods and cosmetics, and AI-enabled products and systems. Your firm offers a unique ‘one-stop shop’ service model, guiding clients from concept to market entirely in-house. How does this integrated approach provide an advantage to your clients, especially within the rapidly changing biotechnology and AI industries? We have always appreciated that science and regulation need to go hand in hand. We work with our clients to develop a strategic approach at the outset to create and maintain a competitive position. This can mean building a strong IP portfolio and regulatory strategy in parallel. Sometimes, this also means creating new approaches and building relationships and collaborations to facilitate the introduction and adoption of paradigm-shifting technologies. In rapidly developing areas, creativity, agility, and the ability to think outside the box are essential; our decades of experience can offer valuable insights and perspectives to facilitate the process of bringing products to market. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, how is your firm navigating the complex landscape of IP rights for those who have their rights infringed by AI creations? What challenges do you foresee in protecting innovation from AI? AI raises many new legal issues and challenges which create uncertainty and risk. We are engaged in helping develop business and legal strategies and policies for many different kinds of applications and products. The dynamic nature of AI also makes conventional IP approaches less useful and requires thoughtful, and oftentimes novel approaches, to spur and protect innovation. In response to the complexities of IP rights infringed by AI creations, our firm has adapted to the evolving legal landscape since our initial AI work in the 1990s. We initially focused on patenting automated systems but faced challenges as US “The common factor in all of our work is that technology is often significantly ahead of the law, and we help shape the law and public policy.”
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