Fish & Richardson Principal Cherylyn Esoy Mizzo Named 2015 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - Feb 5, 2015) - Fish & Richardson announced today that Cherylyn Esoy Mizzo, a principal in the firm's Intellectual Property (IP) Litigation Group, has been selected for the 2015 Fellows program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). The LCLD Fellows program is designed to increase diversity at the leadership levels of the nation's law firms and corporate legal departments.

The LCLD's Fellows program is a highly structured mentoring program with a goal of producing a generation of attorneys with strong leadership skills who are committed to fostering diversity within their individual institutions and the profession at large. Each class of Fellows also serves as mentors to those who follow. To date, 750 mid-career attorneys have participated in the program since it began in 2011. 

Mizzo is the fourth principal from Fish & Richardson to participate in the LCLD Fellows program. Wasif Qureshi (Houston, 2014 class), Todd Garcia (Boston, 2013 class), and Tara Elliott (formerly in the firm's Delaware office, 2012 class) precede her.

"We have a long-standing commitment to diversity and are very proud to have Cherylyn participate as an LCLD Fellow," said Peter J. Devlin, President of Fish & Richardson. "She is a leader not only at Fish, but also in the legal and business community. We are thrilled that she was selected for this opportunity to connect with other leaders across the country who are also committed to fostering diversity." 

At Fish, Mizzo focuses her practice on complex patent and IP litigation before the International Trade Commission and federal district courts. Her work encompasses a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, biomedical devices, recombinant DNA technology, DRAM chips, semiconductors, inkjet ink cartridges, and asymmetric digital subscriber line (DSL) modems.  Mizzo also handles many pro bono matters, and recently represented a transgender woman from El Salvador, who fled her country after being persecuted on account of her sexual identity, in applying for and obtaining political asylum. In 2012, Mizzo was named to the Capital Pro Bono High Honor Roll for "remarkable" pro bono service. 

She received her J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Seton Hall University Law School in 2003 and her B.A., Phi Alpha Theta, in molecular biology, biochemistry, and history from Rutgers University in 1997.

Formed in 2009, LCLD is made up of the general counsels of the nation's preeminent corporations and of the managing partners of the nation's leading law firms whose goal is to work in partnership to eliminate impediments and provide minorities and women with a full and fair opportunity to perform, to succeed, and to lead. Its four key strategic initiatives are titled: Benchmark, Development, Partnerships, and Pipeline. For more information, visit www.lcldnet.org. 

Fish & Richardson is a global patent, intellectual property (IP) litigation, and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists across the U.S. and Europe. Fish has been named the #1 patent litigation firm in the U.S. for 11 consecutive years. Fish has been winning cases worth billions in controversy -- often by making new law -- for the most innovative clients and influential industry leaders since 1878. For more information, visit www.fr.com.