Rachelle H. Thompson, Ph.D., is a patent litigation associate in the Litigation Department of Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ Washington DC office. Dr. Thompson is a registered patent attorney with particular expertise in the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and lithographic arts.
Before joining Weil, Dr. Thompson served as an extern to the Honorable Rudi M. Brewster, Senior District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, a law clerk to the Honorable Rudi M. Brewster, Senior District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and a law clerk to the Honorable Paul R. Michel, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Dr. Thompson worked several years as a patent agent at a national law firm, where she specialized in the domestic and foreign prosecution of patents in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, bioinformatics, biotechnology, genetics, plant biology, pharmaceutical chemistry, semiconductors, and medical devices for prominent American, European, and Asian corporations and universities.
As a graduate student at Stanford University, Dr. Thompson’s research focused on asymmetric synthesis and on phospholipid bilayer chemistry. In 2001, Dr. Thompson became the first African American woman at Stanford University to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Dr. Thompson is admitted to practice before the state courts in California, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.