Lara Chapman Kelley

Lara Chapman Kelley
Counsel
lara.kelley@mcneilliplaw.com
O: 703.243.2007
vCard  |  LinkedIn
McNeill PLLC
245 First Street
18th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142*

Experienced IP counsel—from prosecution to contentious proceedings

Lara Chapman Kelley has over 30 years of experience in patent law, including 4 years as a patent examiner at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Her practice focuses on strategic patent prosecution, client counseling, and contentious proceedings in the biotechnology area. At McNeill, Lara assisted a client in filing petitions for inter partes review (IPR), which resulted in a favorable settlement between the parties.

Lara's patent prosecution experience includes drafting and prosecuting applications in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical device fields, and coordinating worldwide prosecution strategies for both small and large companies. At McNeill, she leverages that prosecution experience to assist clients in compact prosecution strategies before the USPTO.

Lara’s client counseling experience involves advising clients on a wide range of patent issues, including preparing patentability, freedom-to-operate, invalidity, and infringement opinions, and conducting due diligence investigations. She has particular expertise in inventorship disputes, having spent much of her career representing clients in contentious patent interference proceedings before the USPTO. Lara also has significant experience in patent interference, reissue, and reexamination proceedings at the USPTO, as well as appeals to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and federal district courts.

Prior to joining McNeill, Lara spent 14 years at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP. Before entering private practice, Lara attended law school while working as a patent examiner at the USPTO, where she examined patent applications for pharmaceutical inventions.

Select Publications

Navigating the Limitations on Discovery in AIA Post-Grant Proceedings,” Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal, December 3, 2015 (coauthor).

“Why Patent Interference Proceedings Are Worth It,” The New Jersey Law Journal, July 19, 2004 (coauthor).

Admissions

Virginia

District of Columbia

US Patent and Trademark Office

US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC)

US Supreme Court

US Court of Appeals, Veterans Claims (CAVC)

 

*Not admitted in MA

 

Education

Georgetown University Law Center

JD, cum laude, 1999

 

Wake Forest University

BS, Biology, magna cum laude, 1991