Kathleen O'Malley

Kathleen (Kate) O’Malley was a federal judge for over 27 years. She was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1994 at the age of 37 and was elevated to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in 2010. Judge O’Malley is the only former district court judge to be appointed to the CAFC. Judge O’Malley lectures regularly on various intellectual property (IP) topics, including the importance of IP to innovation and the importance of innovation to the economy. Judge O’Malley is the only U.S. representative on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) judicial advisory council, participates in WIPO’s project relating to the ethical and IP implications of artificial intelligence (AI), and, at the invitation of the Queen’s College of London, served on a committee to establish an IP court system in Ukraine and to train the judges thereon. She has also trained judges, lawyers, and stakeholders on the U.S. IP system in over a dozen countries around the world. In addition to her judicial duties, Judge O’Malley has been involved in numerous projects relating to the intersection of science and the law and the education of the judiciary on how best to handle and understand such issues. At the invitation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Federal Judicial Center, Judge O’Malley served on the committee on the development of the third edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence and also recently cochaired a planning committee for a workshop titled "Emerging Areas of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for the Courts" that explored, among other cutting-edge scientific questions, legal questions relating to climate change, the ethical and IP implications of AI, implicit bias, computer science, and engineering. She is currently of counsel at the firm Sullivan & Cromwell.