Leahy's Patent Pro Moves To White House
A key Senate staffer who helped navigate the rough waters of patent reform in the 110th Congress has been named associate counsel to President Barack Obama. Susan Davies most recently worked for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and spent much of the last two years trying bridge ideological gaps between the high-tech sector, pharmaceutical companies, inventors and other patent stakeholders. The controversial bill her boss introduced never made it to the floor. Negotiations with Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter hit a roadblock in the spring after the senators could not arrive at a compromise on language that would change how damages are decided in patent infringement litigation. Leahy and Specter have both said they plan on continuing to work this year on legislation that would update the U.S. patent system.
Before becoming general counsel on the committee, Davies served in the Justice Department Antitrust Division, the Office of the Solicitor General, and the Office of Policy Development. Prior to that, she worked as a litigator at Sidley and Austin in Chicago. Davies also served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer and as a special counsel to former President Bill Clinton. Davies received her bachelor's degree from Yale University and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Davies will serve in the White House Counsel's Office, which is tasked with making sure the administration operates "under the highest standard of ethics and transparency for the American people," Obama said in a statement. A dozen other associate counsels were also named Wednesday.
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