Kristin Menon

Kristin Menon

Summary

Kristin Menon became Of Counsel at Gaw | Poe LLP in 2026, after consulting with the firm since 2020. Her practice draws on a distinctive combination of experience in litigation, patent practice, in-house counsel work, engineering, and production management.

Ms. Menon currently focuses on general litigation. Before joining Gaw | Poe LLP, she consulted at all pre‑trial stages of litigation for highly trusted, small law firms representing both plaintiffs and defendants. These legal proceedings involved corporations, state Attorneys General, statewide classes, and parties in federal actions consolidated into a multi‑district litigation (MDL) in complex civil litigation.

Early in her legal career, Ms. Menon served as Associate Attorney at intellectual property (“IP”) law firm Finnegan, where she practiced IP litigation and prosecution. She represented clients in federal and state court litigation and before the USPTO in standard and specialized proceedings across a wide range of technical and applied science fields.

Thereafter, Ms. Menon took in-house patent counsel positions at Applied Biosystems Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, providing patent portfolio strategy and management from invention harvesting through patent expiration. Her services at Applied Biosystems supported its life sciences equipment. At Johnson & Johnson, her diverse responsibilities for two medical device subsidiaries also included clearance and infringement analyses, strategic technical and patent support for litigation counsel, negotiating and interpreting contract provisions, and M&A due diligence.

Ms. Menon graduated from Stanford Law School in 2002, alongside Messrs. Gaw and Poe. She was admitted to the California bar that year and became a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) in 2005. Before law school, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University while completing eighteen months of industry experience at General Motors. She then spent eight years in engineering and production management roles in the data storage businesses of 3M and Imation.

Beyond the professional matters above, she has devoted generous time to nonprofits in service, leadership roles, and pro bono legal counseling.

Education

Professional Activities