Notable Successes

Kerri-Ann Limbeek

The American Lawyer honored Kerri-Ann Limbeek, partner at Desmarais LLP, as “Litigator of the Week” for winning a $57 million verdict for the biotech firm Ravgen after a federal jury in Austin, Texas found the lab testing company Natera had infringed its prenatal genetic testing patent (No. 7,332,277).
 
This was Limbeek’s first time serving as lead trial counsel, handling both opening and closing, in addition to cross-examining Natera’s engineer who developed the accused product and its main technical expert.
 
“This was a complete victory for Ravgen on the merits for both of the asserted claims,” Limbeek told The American Lawyer. “The Austin jury rejected Natera’s arguments that it does not infringe Ravgen’s patent claims and that those claims are invalid. We are thrilled that the jury recognized that Natera was using Ravgen’s patented inventions and awarded damages to compensate for that use.”
 
Limbeek has run Ravgen’s licensing and litigation campaign since 2020 when she first met with the company’s founder Dr. Ravinder Dhallan as a seventh-year associate. That year Desmarais LLP filed eight patent infringement cases in the district courts, and since then, the firm has won trials against Natera and Labcorp; defeated 10 inter partes review challenges before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; and secured settlements with Illumina, Myriad, PerkinElmer, and Quest Diagnostics. At trial against Labcorp in 2022, Limbeek was second chair on a team helmed by partner John Desmarais that won a $272.5 million verdict (later enhanced to $372.5 million). That was a key experience in positioning her for success against Natera at trial and highlighted how critical it is to build a rapport with the jury, Limbeek said.
 
“My biggest takeaway from seeing John open and close at that trial was the importance of being authentic and connecting with the jury. He didn’t use notes and brought a passion that was very persuasive. For my first time opening and closing at the Natera trial, I similarly did not use notes and tried to speak authentically so that my passion for the case would come across to the jury,” Limbeek said.
 
Read The American Lawyer story

Kerri-Ann Limbeek