Jeannie S. Heffernan

Jeannie S. Heffernan is an accomplished patent litigation attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she leads the firm's IP litigation practice in Texas. She is recognized as an experienced trial lawyer with a robust track record of winning patent infringement trials in federal district courts across the country and at the International Trade Commission, with numerous victories affirmed at the Federal Circuit. Her practice areas span a wide range of technologies, including computer networking, telecommunications, cryptography, semiconductors, and medical devices. She also handles matters involving copyright and trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and breach of contract.

Heffernan primarily represents defendants, focusing on defending operating companies against patent infringement allegations. Her tracked appearance, defending ETRADE Financial Corporation in Cyberfone Systems, LLC v. ETRADE Financial Corporation, involved patents related to telecommunications and data transaction processing, asserted by a patent assertion entity. This aligns with her broader experience, which includes securing multiple defense verdicts in high-profile patent litigation cases, particularly in Texas, and representing telecommunications carriers against patent assertion entities.

Her notable outcomes include obtaining summary judgment rulings of invalidity or non-infringement on various patents, with several such victories affirmed on appeal. For instance, she secured a summary judgment of non-infringement, affirmed on appeal, for a telecommunications carrier client facing claims of over $200 million for an alleged network encoding scheme infringement. Additionally, she achieved a jury verdict of no infringement for a national cable service provider client. Heffernan is also active in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, closely following policy shifts at the USPTO and updating PTAB and district court strategies for her clients.

Ms. Heffernan earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Chicago in June 2002. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and various federal district courts, including the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas.