Karen I. Boyd

Karen Boyd is a founding partner of Turner Boyd LLP, representing clients in intellectual property disputes, focusing on patent disputes.  Her clients have ranged from solo inventors and universities to Fortune 100 companies, in technologies from pharmaceuticals to consumer electronics to medical devices.  She has significant trial experience, but always hopes to resolve disputes much more quickly for clients.  She also serves as a mediator, early neutral evaluator, and an arbitrator in intellectual property disputes, and serves on the mediation panels for the Northern District of California and previously served on the mediation panels for the Federal Circuit and the International Trade Commission.

Ms. Boyd received her law degree in 1996 from U.C. Berkeley School of Law.  She received her master’s degree in molecular biology from U.C.L.A., and her bachelor’s in environmental biology from California State University at Northridge.  Before founding Turner Boyd, Ms. Boyd was a partner at Fish & Richardson, where she practiced from 1997 to 2007.  She was law clerk to Judge Paul Michel at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from 1996 to 1997 and taught appellate procedure with Judge Michel at George Washington Law School.  She has taught Patent and Trade Secret Law at Hastings College of the Law (2003), and Biotechnology and Chemistry Patent Law at Boalt Hall (2002 to 2009).

Ms. Boyd was selected in 2018 as a Top Intellectual Property Lawyer in California by the Daily Journal, has been listed in the Northern California “Super Lawyers” publication every year since 2007, and was selected to the list of Top 50 Women Northern California Super Lawyers for 2012—one of only four women on that list who practice in the intellectual property field. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, the “Super Lawyers” publication ranked Turner Boyd as the top small intellectual property law firm in California. Ms. Boyd was recognized by Best Lawyers^® for 2018 in the fields of intellectual property litigation, patent law, and trade secrets law. Ms. Boyd is a frequent speaker on patent law and other legal issues, and has presented lectures or moderated panels at dozens of conferences.

An active supporter of the community, Ms. Boyd is the president of the Berkeley Law Alumni Association, the immediate past president of the board of directors for the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, and the past president of the board for the Aurora Singers (a community choir based in Palo Alto).