Jessamyn Berniker’s practice is focused on patent litigation, although she has also litigated criminal, copyright, antitrust, legal malpractice, and general civil matters.  Ms. Berniker has handled patent litigation matters in various industries, including the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, electronic, digital media, and medical device industries.  She has handled matters on behalf of patentees as well as alleged infringers.  Since arguing her first patent case before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2003, Ms. Berniker has appeared regularly in district court, has examined fact and expert witnesses in trials around the country, has taken numerous depositions, and has prepared several summary judgment and appellate briefs.  Recently, Ms. Berniker second-chaired a patent trial, successfully argued claim construction on behalf of a pharmaceutical client, and helped an alleged infringer both win summary judgment invalidating a key biotechnology patent and further obtain a $92.5 million settlement from the patentee. 

Before joining Williams & Connolly in 2002, Ms. Berniker was a law clerk to the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 

Ms. Berniker graduated magna cum laude from Pacific Lutheran University in 1998 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in French.  During college and prior to law school she spent several months conducting organic chemistry research at Argonne National Laboratory.  Ms. Berniker obtained her J.D. degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2001.  Ms. Berniker speaks Hebrew fluently and is proficient in French.