Ching-Lee Fukuda, left, and Aimee P. Fagan, right, of Sidley Austin. Courtesy photos
When you take the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math fields and multiply it by what you find in Big Law it equals up to something like this: A 2022 study in the North Carolina Law Review found that 87.4% of patent arguments before the Federal Circuit over the previous decade were handled by men. The study also found men handled more than 90% of patent arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court over the prior 30 years.
The intellectual property litigation practice at Sidley Austin, where 40% of the partners are women, looks pretty remarkable by comparison. Four of the team’s five global co-leaders—Ching-Lee Fukuda in New York, Aimee Fagan in Dallas, Stephanie Koh in Chicago, and Irene Yang in San Francisco—are women. (The fifth co-leader is partner Jeff Kushan in Washington, D.C.)
