McDermott Will & Emery LLP announced that Carey C. Jordan and her patent prosecution team have joined McDermott’s Houston office. Jordan will focus her practice on intellectual property portfolio management and transactions as well as patent prosecution and counseling, with a concentration on the chemicals, energy, and clean-technology industries.

At McDermott, Jordan will be supported by her well-established team of legal and technology professionals, including partner Iona Kaiser, and associates Andrew Metrailer and Melody Wirz, as well as scientific advisor Kristen Mittelman, PhD and experienced patent prosecution legal assistant Debbie Allen. The group comes to McDermott from Baker Botts LLP and represents a major expansion of McDermott’s IP presence in the Houston area. They join key chemical litigation partners Susan K. Knoll and Steven G. Spears, who inaugurated McDermott’s Houston IP practice in December 2008, and Scott W. Clark, who joined the Firm in April 2009. Taken together, the Houston practice now adds significant chemical and biochemical capacity to the Firm’s highly regarded global team of IP attorneys and advisors.

With extensive backgrounds in chemistry, chemical engineering, polymer chemistry, biochemistry, and tool technologies, the team also expands the Firm’s international and national platform in this highly specialized area of patent law and litigation.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Carey and her talented team to the Firm,” said Mark Itri, head of McDermott's IP Prosecution, Transactions and Strategy Practice Group. “Carey’s in-depth experience in the polymer science, petroleum, and other energy arenas, and her focus on emerging and alternative-energy technologies, in particular, will significantly enhance our ability to serve clients in this highly competitive sector."

Jordan and her team work with both start-up and established companies to develop and exploit their worldwide intellectual property portfolios through the implementation of domestic and foreign patent procurement strategies, strategic analysis of existing portfolios, management of patent prosecution and research initiatives, and the negotiation and closing of technology licensing and acquisition agreements. She regularly conducts due diligence investigations, IP negotiations, and freedom-to-operate, validity and non-infringements assessments. She represents clients in a broad range of traditional and clean-energy technologies—including gas-to-liquid and gas-to-fuels technologies, biofuels, solar energy, nanotechnologies and fuel cells—at every step in the exploration, production, and distribution processes. In the alternative-energy arena, she has extensive experience advising clients with respect to trade secrets and the development of trade-secret protocols designed to protect critical information worldwide.

Jordan earned both her M.S. in textile chemistry and polymer science and her B.S., magna cum laude, in textiles with a chemical emphasis, from Clemson University. She earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center, where she also served as administrative editor of the Houston Law Review. In 2009, she was named one of Houston’s “40 Under 40” Business Leaders by the Houston Business Journal. She has also been recognized by Law & Politics as a “Texas Rising Star,” named a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by H Texas, and, since 2005, has been listed as a Leading Lawyer by Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Jordan serves as chairperson on the Women in IP Law Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, as a Council Board Member of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, as a Board Member and Liaison to National IP Organizations for the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association, and as a member of the External Advisory Board of the Clemson University School of Materials Science and Engineering. 

Kaiser holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech and earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center, where she was an editor for the Houston Law Review. Kaiser's practice spans all aspects of patent-related intellectual property law, including prosecution, licensing, and litigation. She has experience in both federal and state courts relating to business interruption, product liability matters and patent disputes. Kaiser is also experienced in transactional patent-related matters, including freedom to operate and infringement opinions, licensing, client counseling, and patent prosecution. She has represented clients in the energy, chemicals, consumer appliance, manufacturing, and technology sectors.

Metrailer holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Texas and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, where he served as articles editor of the Houston Law Review. He represents clients in all phases of patent preparation, prosecution and litigation, with an emphasis on the oil and gas industries.

Wirz earned her J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where she served as assistant managing editor for the Oklahoma Law Review and as Topic Editor for the Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology. She holds an M.B.A. in finance from Oklahoma City University and a B.S. in civil engineering from Oklahoma State University. She advises clients on intellectual property issues relating to all phases of energy exploration, production, and distribution, as well as various alternative energy technologies such as wind, biomass, and solar. 

Dr. Mittelman earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from Baylor College of Medicine where her research focused on developing assays to study the processes of genetic mutation and repair of such mutations in neurons, and her B.S. degree, with academic excellence, from Baylor University in Chemistry, where she concentrated in organic chemistry. Well-versed in patent issues in the fields of energy, alternative energy, biochemistry, chemistry, molecular biology, and medical technology, she regularly helps clients draft patent applications, responses, and other filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She also advises inventors and corporations on conflicts of interest, intellectual-property protection and other issues relating to research and development protocols.

For more information, visit www.mwe.com.