Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year Finalist: Jeannie Heffernan, Kirkland & Ellis
Jeanne Heffernan was named a finalist for “Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year” as part of Texas Lawyer's Texas Legal Awards, and participated in this Q&A.
Jeannie Heffernan, of Kirkland & Ellis, is among the finalists of Texas Lawyer's 2025 Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year Award. Read a Q&A with her below.
What trends do you see shaping the future of IP law?
IP law is undergoing significant transformations in response to the rapid technological advancements we’ve seen in just the last few years. The rise and influence of AI is on everyone's mind, from hallucinated case law to AI-assisted innovation and its challenges to traditional notions of inventorship.
Another development that will affect patent attorneys is the recent policy shift at the USPTO shaping inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, particularly regarding discretionary denials. These changes are still underway, so IP attorneys and their clients are closely following the developments and accordingly updating their PTAB and district court strategies.
We are also observing a lot more cross-border disputes. Companies and firms have been leveraging the UK and German courts because of the unique opportunities for fast decisions and impactful injunctions with little discovery. We represent large clients with global reach, so we’re seeing a lot of these kinds of cases, particularly in the context of standard-essential patents, and expect to see more growth.
How do you prepare for these changes?
As always, it’s important for IP attorneys to stay on top of the latest legislation, court decisions and regulatory changes. More specifically, with technology advancing so rapidly, it’s crucial to make ourselves subject matter experts in our clients’ innovations and related businesses. It’s also important that we take advantage of the technological advances available to us to responsibly leverage AI for certain tasks consistent with our clients’ AI guidelines in order to lower costs so that we can focus more attorney time on legal strategy to position our clients for a successful outcome.
