Up & Coming: Alyssa Lawson

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Alyssa Lawson took awhile to find her niche in law, but once she did there was no doubt about it. After studying political science and philosophy as an undergrad, she began law school with a focus on international law. But a professor who had spent decades as a patent litigator steered her toward intellectual property law.

“A lot of classmates were studying intellectual property law, too, and eventually I fell in love with patent litigation,” Lawson said.

She ended up transferring to the University of California-Berkeley and while pursuing a law and technology certificate, worked for Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

“Technology and law are both constantly changing,” she said. “I mostly represent defendants – companies getting sued over patents that probably shouldn’t have been issued.”

While at Robins, she has represented Minneapolis-based Code42 Software in four patent infringement matters relating to its end-point data protection plan, with all four cases settling.

She also represented Unifrax in a patent infringement case relating to its aircraft flame barrier, and even though the jury decided against her client in that case (which is now post-trial briefing), Lawson found the experience gratifying.

“I learn something from every case I work on,” she said.