Kathleen B. Barry, Of Counsel

Kathleen Barry is of counsel in the firm’s litigation department who concentrates her practice in general commercial and patent litigation.

Ms. Barry’s commercial litigation experience includes cases in patents, contracts, business torts, antitrust, and class actions. She was part of the Winston & Strawn team that defended Wilsonart International in a price-fixing class action seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages. Wilsonart was the sole remaining defendant after two of its codefendants had settled for more than $50 million and another had been discharged in bankruptcy. After a two-month trial in federal district court in White Plains, N.Y., the jury found that Wilsonart did not participate in any price-fixing conspiracy.

Ms. Barry’s experience in patent litigation includes cases involving pharmaceutical drugs, garage door openers, Web sites, and lightbulbs. In these matters, she has represented pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, and retailers. She was a member of the district and appellate court teams assisting Lowe’s Home Centers, Inc. in recovering its attorneys’ fees and costs in Nilssen v. Wal-Mart.

In 2009, the firm recognized Ms. Barry’s pro bono efforts in vindicating the religious rights of an inmate in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Before joining the firm in 2003, Ms. Barry served for two years as a law clerk to the Hon. Robert Holmes Bell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Activities

Ms. Barry has been an editor and regular contributor to the firm’s Federal Circuit Patent Decision Summaries. This weekly firm publication includes a short summary of, and links to, the precedential patent cases decided by the Federal Circuit.

Ms. Barry is also the administrator in Winston & Strawn’s mentoring program at Dodge Academy, a Chicago public school, and a mentor to a number of the Dodge students. The school was recognized in a Chicago Sun-Times article in early 2007 for some of the most significant academic gains in the Chicago Public School system.

Education