Katherine A Helm

Practice Areas

Katherine A. ("Kassie") Helm, Ph.D., is a first-chair counsel who represents leading innovator pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in patent litigation and patent-adjacent litigation matters. Her doctorate in neuroscience allows her to leverage her scientific background alongside her legal acumen to develop and execute winning positions for life sciences companies in all phases of district court litigation and Federal Circuit and other circuit court appeals, and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She has prevailed in high-stakes cases representing life sciences companies as both plaintiff and defendant in patent infringement actions and as both petitioner and patent owner in Post Grant Reviews (PGRs) and Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) at the PTAB, as well as in interferences and appeals.

Patent-adjacent matters are also a significant part of her practice which includes antitrust litigations and related complex commercial disputes in federal and state courts involving IP assets, with breach of contract claims, state law claims involving unjust enrichment and licensing disputes with various joint ventures and drug development collaborations and partnerships.

Dr. Helm is fluent in French and frequently involved in patent disputes with multijurisdictional aspects, including international arbitrations and post-issuance patent proceedings around the globe. She regularly plays a leading role in coordinated global patent disputes involving co-pending ex-U.S. proceedings involving biologic therapeutics in the European national courts as well as in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) and on appeal. Dr. Helm and her team have also been successful in utilizing large-scale U.S. discovery mechanisms under 28 USC § 1782 to assist with foreign patent proceedings.

Dr. Helm is an active participant in the IP community and an authoritative, sought-after speaker and writer on IP topics in the U.S. and Europe. She has authored over 100 articles, book chapters and commentary on legal and scientific topics, including as a former columnist for Law.com and the ALM media group. She is a current legal columnist on IP issues for Thomson Reuters/Westlaw.

Dr. Helm is committed to advancing women in the profession as a founder of the New York chapter of ChIPs (Chiefs of Intellectual Property), a global nonprofit organization with thousands of members dedicated to advancing and connecting women in law, technology and regulatory policy. She is also a founder of the Lead Counsel Summit (LCS), a force for advancing female lead trial counsel. She has had several leadership roles on Federal Circuit Bar Association committees, Law360’s Life Sciences Editorial Board, and other bar association leadership positions. In 2021, Dr. Helm was individually recognized as a winner of Dechert’s Samuel E. Klein Pro Bono Awards, for her work on behalf of military veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In 2024, Dr. Helm was reappointed as Vice Chair of the Patent Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL) and was a signatory member of ABA-IPL’s Task Force on Improving the Durability and Reliability of the Patent Rights. Dr. Helm is also a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society, and a member of the Trial Law Institute and Diversity Law Institute.