54.3 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Laying Down The Law in Biotech

Laying Down The Law in Biotech

Research of a Different Kind Makes Kate Murashige the ‘Mother Superior of Female Patent Lawyers’

BY RENE’E BEASLEY JONES

Staff Writer





She turns the sage-colored leather chair away from the conference table and glances out the window overlooking Valley Centre Drive in San Diego.

Kate Murashige, a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP and co-chair of the firm’s patent group, sits alone with her thoughts. Her mind drifts back over years of legal work.

The chemist-turned-lawyer hesitates to choose which of a myriad patent applications she’s dealt with interested her most. Finally, she wheels the chair around and says: field inversion gel electrophoresis, a method of separating molecules for genetic studies.

Murashige specializes in protecting intellectual property rights, focusing on the pharmaceutical and health care industry. An American Lawyer Media publication recently referred to her as “the mother superior of female patent lawyers.”

Quite an accolade for someone who says she drifted into law.

After earning a doctoral degree in chemistry, thoughts of becoming a brilliant researcher and scientist faded because, as Murashige sees it, she lacked the level of creative-thinking skills and patience required.

Instead, she taught community college classes for 15 years in Sacramento and San Mateo, earning the spot of physical sciences chairwoman for the College of San Mateo. Although she enjoyed teaching, that career left her wanting more.

Murashige never aspired to be a lawyer, but it “seemed practical” for her to attend law classes at night while keeping her day job as a professor. She started practicing law in 1977, handling divorces and landlord-tenant squabbles.

She credits the biotech revolution for creating a true niche for her in the legal profession. In 1980, Syntex, a Palo Alto pharmaceutical company, wanted patent lawyers with chemistry backgrounds.

“They were willing to hire people with no patent experience,” Murashige says. “It just kind of grew from there.”

Evolving With The Industry

In 1983, Murashige and Thomas Ciotti, a colleague at Morrison & Foerster, formed Ciotti & Murashige, which became one of the nation’s premier bioscience practices. She joined San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster in 1991, along with the rest of the Ciotti & Murashige group.

Also, she has served as a member of the former National Biotechnology Policy Board for the National Institutes of Health, member of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Biotechnology Institute Board, past chairwoman of the Biotechnology Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and former president of the Peninsula Intellectual Property Law Association.

Murashige quickly brushes off the idea that she’s earned any degree of national acclaim. “It sounds better on paper than it really is.”

Tami Procopio, a filing specialist at Morrison & Foerster, appreciates Murashige’s humility. “(Murashige) treats you like you’re a next-door neighbor.”

Procopio describes , and admires , Murashige’s lifestyle: jogs every day, sings in a church choir, drives a zippy sports car, dances up a storm at company Christmas parties, takes the stairs up five flights to the office every day, arrives early, stays late, works weekends.

“She does the work of five or six attorneys. As busy as she is, if you go in (her office), she stops whatever she’s doing and listens,” Procopio says.

Drive Time Entertainment

Perhaps Murashige’s personality shines through best with the way in which she deals with boredom on Southern California’s clogged roads. As she makes her way to work from Rancho Santa Fe, where she lives, she waits up to 10 minutes for her turn at one intersection. Murashige doesn’t beep the horn or think hateful thoughts of people in front or behind.

Instead, she keeps her cool by listening to The Teaching Co.’s audiotapes. Among other subjects, she’s learned about the history of music and how the New Testament affected Western civilization. Her favorite, though, was the literary study of Virgil’s “Aeneid.”

“It’s really interesting stuff, so you don’t mind wasting your time in traffic so much.”

In the past, Lila Feisee, Biotechnology Industry Organization’s director of intellectual property, faced off with Murashige in the courtroom.

“I not only learned a lot from her, but she was a worthy adversary,” Feisee says.

She admires Murashige, describing her as a warm, easygoing person , an unusual trait in an opposing attorney, Feisee says. “She’s a great role model for how you can be a strong woman in the field and at the same time be open.”

Murashige says it is hard now to imagine what her life would have been like if she had become a researcher and scientist. They’re now put in the position of acting more like businesspeople and entrepreneurs instead of theorists.

Also, she didn’t foresee today’s explosion in the biotech industry. How could she? The genetic code wasn’t known until the 1960s. While she was a grad student, scientists identified the first codon, a three-letter code that specifies an amino acid.

“That was pretty exciting,” Murashige says. “It was clear at that point that the correspondence between DNA and protein would become evident.”

Looking ahead, Murashige believes there will be tremendous growth in the area of bioinformatics, which involves collecting and disseminating the deluge of biological data generated by the science and medical communities. And she expects a growing need for lawyers who are biotech savvy.

Murashige never thought science would lead her to law, but she enjoys combining the two in her practice. “Science is interesting because there’s substance to it; it’s not just fluff.”


SNAPSHOT: Kate Murashige

Title: Partner at Morrison & Foerster, co-chair of its patent group

Education: B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, in 1956; Ph.D. from UCLA in 1962, and J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1977

Birthplace: St. Louis

Residence: Rancho Santa Fe

Family: Husband, Chris Zones; daughters, Vicky Buchheit and Anne Reddy; son, David Murashige; granddaughters, Lauren and Diana Buchheit and Amanda and Renee Murashige

Hobbies: Sings in choir at Village Church, Rancho Santa Fe

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

Oberon Eyes Europe for Renewable DME

Leaders of Influence in Law 2024

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-