- within Intellectual Property, Transport and Antitrust/Competition Law topic(s)
Tell us about your career highlights to date?
Discovering the practice of IP law. I fell into this field, and it has been a serendipitous personal discovery. Prior to joining my first IP team I began my legal career in international law. My undergraduate bachelor's degree was in law with international relations, immediately followed by my master's (LLM) degree with a specialisation in international law. Following in this path, my first role was within an international arbitration team where I worked on investor state and post M&A arbitration matters. A chance meeting with a partner leading an IP team redirected my path. I joined her IP and TMT practice which offered clients a varied scope of representation from which I benefited from. It gave me an introduction to European patent litigation, trademark and brand enforcement, European IP regulatory advisory work, and IP heavy transactions. The highlight of my career has been the various opportunities that have come form that chance meeting, including joining Meta's IP risk mitigation team focused on soft IP operations in 2021, and eventually joining HSF Kramer's (then Kramer Levin) Patent litigation team. With each case I have worked on I have loved the opportunity to grow my knowledge and expertise in this field/practice area.
What are you most excited about for the remaining months of 2025 and what are your goals in the coming months?
Visiting Nigeria, my home country, this December. I am excited to see my family and friends that live in Nigeria or are returning from the diaspora, as I am. Additionally, I am excited to meet with some Nigerian entrepreneurs and small businesses I have previously worked with and advised following my bar admission in Nigeria. Including an educational technology advisory company called Write Your Future, a company with a mission to close educational opportunity gaps in Nigeria by equipping students in rural schools and underserved communities with offline digital educational tools. In addition to their work with rural communities, they train Nigerian government agencies and organizations in AI adoption, to help Nigerian individuals and institutions keep pace in an increasingly digital world.
Talk to us about the complexities in your field of work?
The complexities of balancing patent litigation with proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal board (PTAB). For a patent holder, navigating district court litigation alongside a parallel PTAB proceeding introduces significant tactical and procedural challenges. Oftentimes when a patent litigation is initiated by a rights holder, the defendant in a case or interested parties may petition to institute an inter partes review (IPR) with the (PTAB), requesting a review of the validity and patent eligibility of the claims of some or all patents asserted in a patent litigation. This leads to simultaneous proceedings before a district court and the PTAB. This development presents unique challenges ranging from stays in a case, the alignment of claim construction positions, and the unpredictability of future developments in the district court case, as determinations in PTAB proceedings such as decisions to institute, director review decisions, or invalidations will affect the viability of a case and ultimately the range of recoverable damages.
What is the best and most honest advice ever given to you?
I am lucky to have received a collection of incredibly impactful advice from my father, mentors, and colleagues. In this moment however, some of the best advice received includes to always be curious, to take ownership of your work, and to keep a sound mind by being content with the satisfaction of hard work disregarding all other noise.
Who are your dream dinner guests and why?
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Her literature, rooted in a culture I share, has followed me from adolescence to adulthood.
- Shonda Rhimes - She single handedly pioneered a new era of storytelling.
- Sergey Brin & Larry Page - They developed a collection of some of the most impactful products incorporated into our day to day lives.
- Roger Federer, Rafeal Nadal, and Novak Djokovic - Together they displayed an unprecedented consistent dominance in tennis.
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