Lathrop GPM Expands Intellectual Property Practice Group Patent Capabilities With Seven New Hires
BOSTON (August 2021) — Lathrop GPM is pleased to announce the recent addition of seven professionals to the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, which comprises about 100 lawyers, patent agents, technical specialists, and other professionals.
“As the group continues to expand our IP practice as it relates to the life sciences, mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering arts, our team of lawyers, patent agents and technical specialists continue to significantly enhance client value with a broad range of experience and advanced technical degrees in scientific fields that support innovation,” said Kate Tompkins, the leader of Lathrop GPM’s IP Practice Group and the first business professional to be tapped for a practice group’s top leadership role at the firm. “As we grow our capabilities, our IP team is increasingly well-suited to address any emerging client need.”
The new additions are:
- Will Carden, Ph.D., a technical specialist on the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Patent team in the Boston office. His experience focuses on synthetic chemistry, including organometallic and organic ligand synthesis. Most recently, Carden was a graduate researcher at the University of Florida, where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry.
- Christopher Coy, an associate on the High Tech/Electrical team in the Minneapolis office who originally joined in April as a patent agent. He has a strong background in medical device and software technologies, networking, hardware, semiconductors and Watson technologies. He earned his J.D. from University of Minnesota Law School.
- Nicole J. Dobynes, an associate attorney in the Chicago office. She focuses her practice on advertising and trademark matters. She is experienced in trademark prosecution in the U.S. and working with foreign trademark agents abroad. Dobynes has over 10 years of legal in-house experience as a paralegal for a major food manufacturer and magazine publishing company. She graduated cum laude from John Marshall Law School. She also holds an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, a Certificate in Paralegal Studies from Loyola University, and a BA from Howard University.
- James Hopkins, Ph.D., a technical specialist on the Biotech Patent team in the Chicago office. He has specific experience with immobilized metal affinity chromatography, plasmid extraction, polymerase chain reactions, sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and DNA gel electrophoresis. Most recently, Hopkins was an assistant researcher while he earned his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
- Laurie Olds, the group’s Docketing & Operations Manager in the Chicago office. She will work closely with the IP Docketing team and is responsible for overseeing our daily docketing operations. Olds spent the last 14 years with Novozymes North America, Inc. as their Senior Patent Administrator.
- Peter Smith, Ph.D., a technical Specialist in the Boston office. Smith graduated from Harvard Medical School earning his Ph.D. in Biology. While there, as a Graduate Researcher and under the direction of Dr. George Church who leads Synthetic Biology at Harvard’s renowned Wyss Institute, he worked on and developed new proteomics based tools to identify self-splicing inteins.
- Jong Yi, Ph.D., a technical specialist in the Boulder office. He has extensive experience with physics, including particle, nuclear and photonics; product lifecycle management; rugged engineering; and technology/product development and transfer. Most recently, Yi was a principal physicist at Schlumberger Limited and holds a Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics from Iowa State University.
Lathrop GPM’s IP Practice Group provides patent, trademark and copyright support to multinational biotech and pharmaceutical companies, universities, hospitals, investment entities, startups and serial entrepreneurs, including on chemical, mechanical and consumer products matters.