Deirdre M. Wells

Overview

Deirdre M. Wells is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Trial & Appellate Practice Group. She has extensive trial experience before judges and juries in federal district courts. She is also a member of Sterne Kessler’s esteemed International Trade Commission litigation team. Deirdre’s experience encompasses all aspects of intellectual property litigation, including utility patents, design patents, federal and state trademarks, trade dress, and false advertising claims. Deirdre also has experience licensing, analyzing, and assessing intellectual property portfolios, litigating post-grant review proceedings before the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and formulating inter partes reexamination requests and appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Deirdre represents clients in a variety of fields, including consumer products, food and beverage processing and manufacturing equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electrical circuits, vehicle graphics systems, data storage devices, internet search technology, LEDs, wireless broadband technology, radio frequency identification technology, VoIP, telephone systems, and mobile content delivery.

Deirdre is sought after for her ability to translate highly technical and legal information into persuasive, easy to follow argument for a non-technical judge or jury. She presents arguments in a manner that both captures the technical and legal nuance of the argument and is easily comprehensible to individuals without a background in the science or technology being litigated.

Deirdre has also performed pro bono work representing veterans, asylum seekers, and low-income clients.

Prior to attending law school, Deirdre performed research related to the steps of protein splicing in several Pyrococcus abyssi proteins and the manipulation of those steps. Deirdre earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and her B.A. in biology and French, magna cum laude, from The College of the Holy Cross.

When not working, Deirdre enjoys traveling the world with her husband and two small children and exploring Capitol Hill with her dog, Sawyer.

Technical Publications

• “Supreme Court Grants Review in Case on Patent Exhaustion,” V&E IP Insights E-communication, October 8, 2012 (co-author).
• “Federal Circuit Reopens Bid to Take Generic Zegerid Off the Market,” V&E IP Insights E-communication, September 7, 2012 (co-author).
• “Federal Circuit Confirms ANDA Filer May Carve Out Patented Uses to Avoid Infringement,” V&E IP Insights E-communication, February 10, 2012 (co-author).
• “Eastern District of Texas Court Recognizes Value in Unique Scheduling Orders in Multi-Defendant Cases,” V&E IP Insights E-communication, November 8, 2011 (co-author).
• Kerrigan, A.M., Powers, T.L., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N., and Mills, K.V. (2009) Protein splicing of the three Pyrococcus abyssi ribonucleotide reductase inteins. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 387, 153-157.
• Mills, K.V., Connor, K.R., Dorval, D.M., and Lewandowski, K.T. (2006) Protein Purification via Temperature-Dependent, Intein-Mediated Cleavage from an Immobilized Metal Affinity Resin. Anal. Biochem. 356, 86-93.
• Mills, K.V., Dorval, D.M., Lewandowski, K.T. (2005) Kinetic analysis of the individual steps of protein splicing for the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. J. Biol. Chem 280, 2714-2720.

Abstracts:

• Mills, K., Reitter, J., Dorval, D., Lewandowski, K., Marieni, M., Duffee, L., Donahue, C. (2011) Non-canonical inteins: Alternate mechanisms for protein splicing. Protein Science 20-Supl, 180.
• Marieni, M.D., Duffee, L.R., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2011) The influence of conserved catalytic residues on the mechanism of protein splicing of the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. FASEB J. 25, 520.10.
• Donahue, C.A., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2011) Determining the activation barrier and pH-dependence of each step of protein splicing. FASEB J. 25, 520.6.
• Duffee, L.R., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2010) A kinetic analysis of each step of protein splicing of the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. FASEB J. 24, 463.5.
• Mills, K.V., Reitter, J.N., Duffee, L.R., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., and Lewandowski, K.T. (2010) Non-canonical inteins: alternate mechanisms for protein splicing. FASEB J. 24, 520.11.
• Nadelson, A.C., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., Lewandowski, K.T., Connor, K.R., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2010) Manipulation of protein splicing side reactions to facilitate protein purification and expressed protein ligation. FASEB J. 24, 463.13.
• York, D.J., Duffee, L.R., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2010) Estimating the activation barrier to each step of protein splicing for the non-canonical P. abyssi PolII intein. FASEB J. 24, 463.18.
• Duffee, L.R., Nadelson, A.C., York, D.J., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2009) Influence of conserved residues on individual steps of protein splicing of the non-canonical Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. Protein Science 18-Supl, 86.
• Nadelson, A.C., York, D.J., Lewandowski, K.T., Dorval, D.M., Connor, K.R., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2009) Development of protein purification strategies using the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. Protein Science 18-Supl, 86.
• Mills, K.V., Reitter, J.N., Connor, K.R., Kerrigan, A.M., Dorval, D.M., Drago, M.J., Lewandowski, K.T. and Powers, T.L. (2009) Non-canonical inteins: Alternate mechanisms of protein splicing. Protein Science 18-Supl, 171.
• Kerrigan, A.M., Powers, T.L., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2009) The influence of extein residues on the protein splicing of three Pyroccocus abyssi inteins. FASEB J. 22, 502.3.
• Kerrigan, A.M., Powers, T.L., Dorval, D.M., Reitter, J.N. and Mills, K.V. (2008) The dependence of three P. abyssi inteins on extein sequence for efficient protein splicing. FASEB J. 20, 611.13.
• Mills, K.V., Reitter, J.N., Connor, K.R., Dorval, D.M., Drago, M.J., Lewandowski, K.T., and Powers, T.L. (2008) Alternate mechanisms of protein splicing by non-canonical inteins. Abstracts of the ASBMB 2008 National Meeting.
• Dorval, D.M., Connor, K.R., and Mills, K.V. (2006) Catalysis of individual steps of protein splicing of the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. FASEB J. 20, A40.
• Powers, T.L., Drago, M.J., Dorval, D.M., Connor, K.R., and Mills, K.V. (2006) Protein splicing of a non-canonical Clostridium thermocellum intein with N-terminal Gln. FASEB J. 20, A964.
• Mills, K.V., Lewandowski, K.T., and Dorval, D.M. (2005) The Mechanism of Protein Splicing of the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. Protein Science 14-Supl, 87.
• Lewandowski, K.T., Dorval, D.M., and Mills, K.V. (2005) A Kinetic study of the protein splicing mechanism of the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. FASEB J. 19, A1401.

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School
• B.A., Biology and French, College of the Holy Cross, magna cum laude

Admissions

• District of Columbia
• Texas
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
• United States Patent & Trademark Office
• Supreme Court of the United States

Events