Intellectual property reporter Scott Graham sat down with Marilyn Hall Patel, the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and her former law clerk Katherine Helm, now an IP life sciences partner at Dechert in New York, to discuss the state of women in IP law. Patel and Helm share when to give young guns a platform, why lawyers should say yes to paternity leave and how U.S. District Judge Jack Coughenour of the Western District of Washington became an advocate for women in the Ninth Circuit.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.