Former USPTO Solicitor Farheena Rasheed Joins Orrick’s Supreme Court & Appellate Practice to Focus on Life Sciences

• Farheena Rasheed, a 15-year veteran of the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) and most recently Solicitor and Assistant General Counsel for Intellectual Property Law, joins Orrick as a partner in its Supreme Court & Appellate practice. She will be based in Washington, D.C.
• As Solicitor at the USPTO, Farheena was the agency’s chief IP litigation attorney and principal advisor on national IP policy. She led the U.S. government’s litigation strategy and served as lead counsel in well over 500 appeals before the Federal Circuit, with a significant number reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Farheena served as the agency’s liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice and the primary advisor to the U.S. Solicitor General on Supreme Court IP cases.
• Farheena joins the Supreme Court & Appellate practice led by Josh Rosenkranz who with his team was named American Lawyer Litigator of the Year in 2025 for an unprecedented third time, while Orrick was recognized as AmLaw IP Litigation Department of the Year finalist for the second time in a row. The firm represents 12 of the 20 largest biopharma companies in the U.S. in protecting their innovations and IP.
• Farheena is the second addition to Orrick’s Supreme Court & Appellate practice in the past year, following former General Counsel of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Anisha Dasgupta.

“We could not be more honored to welcome a talent like Farheena to our Supreme Court & Appellate team to collaborate with our life sciences IP practice, which is experiencing extraordinary demand. She is an appellate practitioner of the highest caliber – with the rare distinction of having argued 25 Federal Circuit appeals,” said Josh Rosenkranz, head of Orrick’s Supreme Court & Appellate group. “Having served on the front lines at the USPTO for fifteen years, she offers our clients unique insights into how government policy and the overall IP legal system shape innovation across the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and diagnostics.”

“It has been the highlight of my career to work with the tremendous team at the USPTO,” said Farheena. “I’m now incredibly excited to join one of the nation’s foremost Life Sciences patent litigation and appellate practices – and to help Orrick’s clients navigate this moment of extraordinary innovation.”

About Farheena

• At the USPTO, Farheena led the transformation of the agency’s intervention and amicus participation practice into a pipeline of proactive review and engagement, developing its strategy for evaluating over 500 AIA post-grant appeals for possible intervention and selective amicus participation. She served on the USPTO AI/Emerging Technologies Working Group, supporting the agency’s internal AI capabilities as well as contributing to the development of national IP policy for emerging technologies.
• Farheena holds a Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and has published several papers on DNA topoisomerase-targeted chemotherapy in the lab of Dr. Eric H. Rubin at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. She was in private practice before joining the USPTO and clerked for the Honorable Marvin J. Garbis of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland and the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.