Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Malley
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Kathleen M. O’Malley was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President Barack Obama in 2010. Prior to her elevation to the Federal Circuit, Judge O’Malley was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by President William J. Clinton on October 12, 1994. Judge O’Malley served as First Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Staff for Ohio Attorney General Lee Fisher from 1992-1994, and Chief Counsel to Attorney General Fisher from 1991-1992. From 1985-1991, she worked for Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, where she became a partner. From 1983-1984, she was an associate at Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. During her sixteen years on the district court bench, Judge O’Malley presided over in excess of 100 patent and trademark cases and sat by designation on the United States Circuit Court for the Federal Circuit. As an educator, Judge O’Malley has regularly taught a course on Patent Litigation at Case Western Reserve University Law School; she is a member of the faculty of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology’s program designed to educate Federal Judges regarding the handling of intellectual property cases. Judge O’Malley began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1982-1983. She received her J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Order of the Coif, in 1982, where she served on Law Review and was a member of the National Mock Trial Team. Judge O’Malley attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1979. Read more...