In the Media
Kathi Vidal Featured in World Intellectual Property Review Highlighting Ongoing Work to Empower Women Leaders
In the Media
March 12, 2025
Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal was featured among senior legal voices from the world’s biggest companies in a World Intellectual Property Review article where they shared their perspectives on the United Nation’s International Women’s Day theme ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.’ Those featured have not only climbed the corporate ladder but have driven meaningful change within their organizations. They highlight both the progress made and the ongoing work needed to empower the next generation of women leaders in law and business.
“Now more than ever, we need women leaders to dismantle systemic barriers and create supportive ecosystems,” said Kathi. “As Under Secretary of Commerce for IP and Director of the USPTO, I worked with Secretary Gina Raimondo and others to reduce barriers through the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Council for Inclusive Innovation.”
During her time at the USPTO, Kathi introduced an attestation process for hiring, requiring colleagues to confirm that they considered a robust pool of candidates and focused on potential rather than past experience alone. In addition to rewriting job descriptions to remove unnecessary criteria, this increased USPTO leadership diversity by 5% in one year. Kathi also founded Nextgenlawyers.com to help women advance in law firms at the same rate as men by working with judges and the USPTO to create programs that incentivize arguments by all junior lawyers (women and men). All of her programs and initiatives provided more opportunity for everyone without putting a thumb on the scale.
“With the right intention and attention, we can work together for all women and girls,” Kathi said.
