Assistant General Counsel
CurrentI am responsible for all intellectual property needs for several BD businesses. My primary focus is obtaining high-quality patents that effectively limit our competitors' options. I oversee the patent portfolios for multiple businesses, each with many ongoing projects; develop suitable patent filing strategies; manage outside prosecution counsel; ensure landscape searches, FTO assessments, and appropriate filings are efficiently and timely completed through all project phase gates; sponsor ideation sessions to create a valuable and assertable patent portfolio specific to the business's markets; and work closely with the commercial teams to identify products that may infringe BD's intellectual property.Prior to BD's acquisition of Bard, I represented one of the four major Bard businesses for all its intellectual property needs. In addition, I was responsible for managing nearly all of Bard's patent litigation. This included conducting initial legal assessments; working with the business team to build a business case for pursuing litigation; managing litigation budgets; ensuring the litigation strategy was aligned with the business's goals; and communicating effectively and efficiently to leadership. My experience ranged from conducting pre-filing investigations to reviewing cert petitions. I have been deposed many times on behalf of my employer in connection with commercial and patent litigation, both as an individual and corporate witness.I also have significant experience conducting and overseeing evaluation of external intellectual property portfolios and assessing risk for the corporate development team.
