Newly-Minted Women IP Litigation Partners Embrace Trial Work as a Team Endeavor
Multiply the gender imbalance in most law firm partnerships by the underrepresentation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, and the odds would seem to be long for women seeking to make partner as intellectual property litigators.
That’s part of what made the career journeys of four women IP partners who participated in Law.com’s “How I Made It” series over the past year jump off the page. Kate McMorrow of Knobbe Martens, Sonja Sahlsten of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, Jessica Gutierrez of Robins Kaplan and Josephine Young of Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone all shared their paths to partnership. All four highlight the elements of litigation that make it a team sport where self-reliance—although elsewhere viewed as virtuous in work culture—can be something of a hindrance.
Young, who is based in the New York office of Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone, joined the firm at its launch in 2022 after previously practicing as a patent litigator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She started working with name partners Nick Groombridge and Jennifer Wu in the very beginning of her career and with partner Eric Stone shortly thereafter. “What drew me to them was their approach to the law,” she said. “Some lawyers are comfortable hiding facts to win a case or becoming, as some of my colleagues would say, members of the American College of Discovery Lawyers, but I prefer to build a strategy to win knowing all the facts with an eye towards going to trial.”
Still, Young was the first lawyer in her family and she said she was “very ignorant about the legal profession” when she was first getting started as a litigator. On top of that, she did graduate work in chemistry before law school, so her initial approach was to solve problems on her own rather than to collaborate. “I’m naturally quite introverted. So I put myself in a self-imposed black box: I didn’t tap into the resources I had available to me, and that held me back,” she said. “After working with my colleagues, it finally dawned on me that I have a deep pool of resources from which I can draw, and that transformed my legal career.”
Gutierrez practices intellectual property and technology litigation from the Minneapolis office of Robins Kaplan. She practiced as an associate at Winthrop & Weinstine and Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner, both in Minneapolis, before joining Robins Kaplan in September 2019.
Like Young, she was the first lawyer in her family. Indeed, she said she was the first among them to graduate from a “traditional university.” She said that while she felt her peers were going through school with confidence, she always felt a step behind.
“Every decision, from choosing a law school to identifying a career path, felt like a guessing game,” Gutierrez said. “The industry, the practice, the culture—all of it was foreign.” At the time, she was afraid to reveal those internal struggles to anyone. “The greatest lesson I took from that experience is the importance of asking for help,” she said. “It wasn't until I started turning to guidance and advice from others that I really found my footing.”
McMorrow, a partner in the Los Angeles office at Knobbe Martens, has been with the firm practicing intellectual property and advertising law since August 2021. She previously practiced as an associate at an IP boutique in Chicago and a larger general service firm in Los Angeles.
She said that making partner requires extensive knowledge in your practice area and strong relationships both inside and outside of the firm. “It takes years of dedication to develop those skills, attributes and relationships, so I think the critical thing is finding an area of law that you love and get excited about,” she said. “If you are passionate about the work, then you will be able to maintain enthusiasm, stay committed to the practice and, in time, establish why you should be made a partner.”
She said young lawyers must forge past shyness they might have and socialize with partners to expand their professional opportunities. “The best opportunities in my career came from unexpected conversations in hallways and socializing with partners that I did not necessarily work with at the time,” she said. “It is much easier to plan and shape your career if you proactively seek the opportunities that you want.”
Sahlsten, who is based in Finnegan’s Washington, D.C., office, first joined the firm as a summer associate in 2014, returned as an associate in 2015 and has practiced at the firm ever since, except for a one-year clerkship with Federal Circuit Judge Sharon Prost. She said that with her background in mechanical engineering, she knew she wanted to focus on patent litigation. So she said Finnegan, with its strength in the district courts and at the Federal Circuit, was a natural choice. “Most importantly, I liked the people I worked with, and I had a lot of great supporters and mentors,” she said. “When I was deciding where to go after my clerkship, I wanted a place where I could shape my own practice and where there was a realistic path to partnership, and Finnegan was an easy choice.”
She said that she thinks the key to making partner is earning colleagues’ trust and having them see you function like a partner. “On my litigation matters, that meant being someone that my colleagues could trust to effectively manage cases, guide case strategy, interact with the client and argue in court,” she said. “Be reliable and responsible. Trust is so important, and the way to build that with your colleagues is by being reliable.”
“If you are someone that your colleagues can count on, they are going to want to work with you and will invest in you as someone they see as a future partner. As you get more senior and approach partnership consideration, it is also important to take responsibility, not only for yourself and your work, but also for those that you supervise.”
“Find Your People”
Young at Groombridge Wu said that making partner involved bringing a variety of skills to bear on her work. “You can’t be one-dimensional and be a star,” she said. “It’s a mix of things that makes someone a good leader: thinking strategically about the facts in the face of challenging cases, working well with your teammates and developing relationships both inside and outside your firm.”
She said that her advice to anyone interested in making partner is to be curious and vocal. “To be good at any job, you need to have a passion for it, and passion means wanting to learn more. Ask questions about the case, the client and the business they are in,” she said. “It’s equally important to be vocal about that curiosity. A lot of people get used to working in silos, and I see a lot of associates are afraid to talk about their ideas or questions with partners and other associates because they don’t want to give a bad impression. Discussion and collaboration are fodder for better and more nuanced ideas, so being vocal and open-minded goes a long way.”
Gutierrez said that her trial experience and her commitment to the firm’s future were key factors for her to make partner. She said at Robins Kaplan, she’s had multiple opportunities to participate in bench and jury trials. “With each trial, I took a larger role on the team. Each experience proved more valuable than the last,” she said. “I found that the ability to understand how a case will play out in front of a jury gives unparalleled perspective. Now, moving forward, I draw from those trial experiences in managing and strategizing all stages of a complex case.”
She said her best advice to lawyers who want to make partner is to “[f]ind your people.”
“You cannot succeed alone in a law firm setting. So, find the people who will support you, advocate for you, and make you want to come to work every day. Find the partners you want to work with,” she said. “Do good work for those partners and speak with them about continuing your work together. Find the junior associates you want on your teams. Help those associates develop their own skills, and advocate for them within your firm. Find the clients you want to work for. They may be institutional clients, or they may be industries or types of clients you want to pursue. Keep those clients in mind to ensure you are building the practice that you want.”
