Kate Geyer: Breaking Institutional Bias

This episode introduces the new co-host of the Sidebars podcast, Kate Geyer. Kate is an Associate in Kilpatrick Townsend’s Seattle office. Her practice focuses on patent litigation in federal court and at the ITC, as well as post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office.
Kate is a 2019 graduate of George Washington University Law School. She graduated with high honors, Order of the Coif, and won the Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck Award. While in law school, in addition to being a research assistant and an articles editor for the George Washington Law Review, Kate also won the 2018 and 2019 AIPLA’s Giles S. Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition and served as a judicial intern for the honorable Kara Stoll Carto on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and as a law clerk in the Office of Unfair Import Investigations at the ITC.
Prior to law school, Kate graduated from MIT with a BS in physics and minors in mathematics and political science, then followed her passion for the intersection of technology and policy to a position as a business analyst in Washington, DC, dissecting emerging technologies for the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.
In this episode, Kate shares her journey to becoming the patent litigator and fierce advocate she is today. This journey also built her determination to break the barriers and institutional biases that still persist for women and minorities in patent law, and to create a more welcoming and inclusive profession - one in which there is a seat at the table for everyone.
Highlights include:

• Introducing the new co-host of Sidebars (0:38)
• Turns out, learning physics and doing physics are not the same thing (2:44)
• Finding practical ways to indulge a passion for tech and policy (3:44)
• Participating in the arena, expanding one’s horizons, finding law school (4:47)
• Breaking “it’s not what we do around here” institutional norms (8:33)
• A multigenerational perspective on gender barriers and mentorship (10:59)
• The unexpected dynamics of being a young and female litigator (14:40)
• New opportunities for younger attorneys (15:59)
• The importance of giving associates freedom from micromanagement (20:29)
• Taking ownership and handling mistakes (26:00)
• Finding a job you love (28:48)
• Perfectionism and not being the smartest person in the room (31:13)
• Getting over fears with practice (37:22)
• Crushing arguments with preparation (43:35)
• The critical need to address the shortage of women and minorities in leadership (48:40)

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**The opinions expressed are those of the attorneys and do not necessarily reflect the views of the firm or its clients. This podcast is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.