Deborah Sterling, Ph.D., is a director and chair of Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group. Her practice is focused in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, where she counsels clients from around the world in all areas of patent procurement, including domestic and foreign patent preparation, and lifecycle management strategies. Her practice also includes counseling clients on intellectual property strategy, including freedom-to-operate and patentability issues, validity and infringement issues, and due diligence investigations in connection with acquisitions and investments.
Deborah’s experience includes representing clients in over 75 inter partes review and covered business method proceedings, and in multiple patent interferences and reexaminations. Deborah has also been involved in multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent litigations, including those brought under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Deborah leverages her experience in inter partes disputes to help patent owners craft and execute patent strategies that best align with their business needs.
Deborah’s intellectual property experience has been principally in technical areas such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, molecular biology, analytical instruments, agrochemicals and clean technology. She also counsels clients in emerging and regulated industries, including cannabinoid therapeutics.
She has been recognized numerous times as a leading practitioner in the life sciences. Managing Intellectual Property named her an "IP Star" in 2020 and 2021 and the IAM Patent 1000 ranked her among the top Washington, D.C. patent prosecution attorneys in 2021. LMG Life Sciences honored her as the “Patent Strategy Attorney of the Year (DC Metro)” in 2021, listed her as a finalist for its "Post Grant Proceeding Attorney of the Year" in 2020, and named her as a “Life Sciences Star” in 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Deborah earned her J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular physiology from the University of Alberta, and her B.S., with first class honours, in biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University.
Education/Alumni:
J.D., George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
Ph.D., University of Alberta
B.Sc., Heriot-Watt University, first class honours
Last updated November 2021
