Carissa focuses her practice on patent prosecution and litigation. She is a member of the intellectual property group, providing demonstrated experience working in heavily regulated industries including, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and oil and gas. She leverages her extensive engineering background in risk management, project management, process monitoring, process design, and process simulation to help clients meet their business objectives at every stage of product development. While in law school, Carissa served as a legal intern at Baxter International, Inc. and as a judicial intern to the Honorable Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
A chemical engineer by education, Carissa’s previous experience includes working for Eli Lilly and Company, BP, and BHP Billiton. As an engineering intern at Eli Lilly, Carissa gained valuable experience as a process engineer and quality assurance engineer on the insulin manufacturing team. Her projects included chromatography analysis, increasing insulin formula product yield, improving quality control inspections, and minimizing open processing. As a process engineer at BP and BHP Billiton, Carissa worked with multi-disciplinary teams where she was responsible for process monitoring, driving continuous improvement efforts, creating and utilizing process simulation models, and identifying risks associated with both new and existing process design changes.
Professional and Civic Activities
- American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) – Diversity Committee IP Transactions Liaison
- American Bar Association
Publications
- Author, “Key Developments that Shaped the USPTO in 2021,” IP Watchdog, December 22, 2021
