Farheena Y. Rasheed

Farheena Y. Rasheed is an accomplished intellectual property litigator and appellate advocate who recently became a partner in Orrick's Supreme Court & Appellate practice in January 2026. Her practice has a strong focus on life sciences and pharmaceutical patent litigation, leveraging her graduate-level education in cellular and molecular pharmacology. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Rasheed had a distinguished 15-year career at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), culminating in her appointment as the agency's chief litigator—the Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property Law and Solicitor.

Representing the government, Ms. Rasheed's work has exclusively been on the defense side, a role exemplified in the tracked case Corel Software LLC v. United States Patent & Trademark Office. In her capacity as Solicitor, she led the litigation strategy for the USPTO in hundreds of appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and advised the U.S. Solicitor General on IP cases before the Supreme Court. Press reports note she has personally argued 25 cases at the Federal Circuit, an unusually high number that establishes her as a seasoned appellate specialist. Her practice is deeply intertwined with post-grant patent challenges, having spearheaded the USPTO's appellate defense of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions in AIA proceedings and briefly served as an Acting Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge at the PTAB.

Before her long tenure at the USPTO, Ms. Rasheed spent five years in private practice focusing on patent litigation at White & Case LLP. Her career also includes prestigious federal clerkships for the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa of the Federal Circuit and the Honorable Marvin J. Garbis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Ms. Rasheed earned her Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law-Newark, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Rutgers Law Review. She also holds a Master of Science in pharmacology and a Bachelor of Arts in molecular biology and biochemistry from Rutgers University.