A Conversation with Mareesa Frederick about Women and Diversity in IP Law

• Author: Shannon N. Proctor
• Pages: 43-64

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 13, Number 4, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

A Conversation with

Mareesa Frederick

about Women and

Diversity in IP Law

By Shannon N. Proctor

Mareesa Frederick (mareesa.frederick@nnegan.com) is

a partner at Finnegan LLP in Washington, D.C., where she

focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation with a

focus on investigations before the International Trade Com-

mission (ITC) and counseling matters.

Shannon Proctor: I rarely see Black women with chemistry

backgrounds, so I was very excited to see your background

in chemistry. As a woman of color, what sparked your inter-

est in STEM and chemistry?

Mareesa Frederick: It’s interesting, because initially I

started out as a math major at Spelman, a historically Black

women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. I went into

math because during my last year of high school, I was the

only female student in my calculus class because the school

had just integrated to include girls. My math teacher always

announced the highest grades when handing back our tests,

and I kept getting the highest score. I hadn’t realized I was

good at math until then, so I gured I should major in it.

I went to Spelman and decided to pursue a dual degree

in math and engineering. Initially, I was unsure on the type

of engineering degree I would pursue. But during my fresh-

man year, I settled on chemical engineering because I always

enjoyed the process of making things, such as consumer

products. Chemical engineering also offered me a wide scope

of industries to work in—from food and beverages to phar-

maceuticals. I then switched my major to chemistry and

chemical engineering and was on my way.

SP: Your college experience pursuing a STEM degree must

have been a lot different from many people of color since

you went to Spelman College, which is (1) a historically

Black college and (2) a women’s college.

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 13, Number 4, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

MF: Yes, it was. Spelman provided me with an excellent

education and a nurturing environment for me to learn and

grow. The strong foundation Spelman provided more than pre-

pared me for Georgia Tech, where I pursued my engineering

degree, and for the challenges that I have faced in my career.

SP: Did you start working in chemical engineering after

college?

MF: I did. I started working for ExxonMobil doing research

and development work. Then I moved into process engineer-

ing, where I oversaw a manufacturing line. I was responsible

for making plastic used in cereal bags or Kit Kat wrappers. I

really enjoyed it. I used all the theory I learned at Georgia Tech

in a much more practical way in the manufacturing plant.

SP: So you went from Kit Kat wrappers to law school?

MF: I knew I wanted to go to law school even before I

decided to work as an engineer, but I decided to get some indus-

try experience rst. When I was in high school, or maybe

college, my parents had this book on inventions, which I enjoyed

reading. That is what sparked my initial interest in patent law. I

applied to law school during my second year working at Exx-

onMobil, and I decided to attend the George Washington Law

School, which has a strong intellectual property program.

SP: I take it you focused on patent law and looked for those types

of externships and internships while at George Washington.

MF: I was fortunate in that I was offered a summer associ-

ate position at Finnegan after my rst year as a law student.

I continued to work at the rm throughout law school and

accepted a position as an associate after I graduated.

SP: Now that we have a good sense of your background, I

want to talk about diversity in IP and the legal eld, with a

focus on women in IP. “Diversity” has been such a buzzword

for years now that it almost gets annoying. You will hear people

say, “Let’s increase diversity,” but we do not always see genu-

ine efforts to do this. Have you seen an increase in women, for

example, in your IP practice from when you rst started?

MF: I do see more women. Finnegan does a great job at

being intentional and committed to having diverse summer

associate classes. We do the majority of our associate hiring

through the summer associate program rather than through

lateral hiring. In the IP legal eld more generally, since I rst

started as an associate, I have also seen more women leading

cases and being members of litigation teams.

SP: Are you seeing diversity among opposing counsel?

MF: I have seen the numbers increase for women of color

litigators since I started as a rst-year summer associate.

However, when it comes to retaining women of color, in par-

ticular African American and Latino women, it is challenging.

SP: Are you seeing more diversity on the bench?

MF: Yes. I have a distinct practice, in that I have a subspecialty

in litigation before the ITC. Back in 2010, during a hiatus from

Finnegan, I worked as a senior investigative attorney at the ITC for

ve years. There were no women judges, but there were women

commissioners. Now the ITC has two women judges.

More generally, I have not seen a signicant difference with

respect to the addition of more judges of color to the bench in

other courts or tribunals since I started practicing in 2002. My

understanding is that approximately 4 percent of sitting judges

are Asian American, and when you look specically at gender

differences, for women of color, the numbers are at 7 per-

cent.1 I think there is a consensus that diversity on the bench is

extremely important, as different points of view or life experi-

ences can inform a judge’s decisions when resolving cases.

SP: You mentioned that it is challenging to retain certain

demographics. When you have talented, diverse associates,

they are seen as a desirable commodity by law rms that

pursue them—possibly to check the diversity box while hav-

ing a strong associate. I have also heard from colleagues

that they feel like they are not recognized or are unappre-

ciated. What do you think law rms can do to keep these

talented, diverse associates engaged?

MF: I do think that’s a problem. I’ve been to different con-

ferences where this issue has been discussed, and it always

seems to circle back to three areas to increase the numbers of

diverse attorneys:

Recruiting. Firms need to broaden both the pool from

which they seek candidates as well as the schools from which

they seek them. Some law rms are focused on recruit-

ing from only the top 10 law schools, but if you do that, you

could miss very promising candidates. For example, perhaps

there is a person of color who couldn’t afford to go to Har-

vard and instead had to go to a non-Ivy League school on

scholarship. That person of color could be a stellar attorney

but would be overlooked by top law rms.

Experience. There needs to be a very concerted effort on

sponsoring diverse associates to ensure they are building their

skills as a lawyer. It should not be the case that an attorney in

the fth year of practicing has not taken a deposition, written

a signicant portion of a brief, or had extensive client contact.

And, unfortunately, it could get to a point where it’s more dif-

cult to get staffed on high-prole matters because you don’t

have the foundation of skills or the condence to do the work.

So, I think rms need to be intentional about making sure

attorneys of color are included among those who are getting

the early experiences and skills needed to be successful.

Accountability. I think that rms need to hold themselves

accountable by keeping track of, measuring trends from, and

acting upon the data, making sure they understand what does

and does not work.

In my view, these are three areas that rms can work on

improving. This list is not exclusive, but I do think these three

areas could help in retaining attorneys of color in law rms.

SP: Those are all good points for consideration. I under-

stand you took a very proactive approach to gain signicant

trial experience. Can you tell us about that and how it

affected your IP practice later?

Shannon N. Proctor is an associate at Hollingsworth LLP. She can

be reached at sproctor@hollingsworthllp.com.