Theresa M. Dawson is Senior Counsel to Carter Arnett. Theresa’s practice is focused primarily on high-stakes patent and complex commercial litigation. Theresa has successfully represented more than 200 clients in federal courts nationwide in patent disputes involving a wide range of technologies, including e-commerce, computer software and hardware, semiconductors, Bluetooth technology, IoT, encryption, telecommunications, network architecture, and mobile applications. Theresa’s intellectual property litigation practice has involved multiple appeals, including arguing cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Federal Circuits. Theresa has also successfully handled numerous inter partes review matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Theresa was Of Counsel at the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C. for several years prior to joining Carter Arnett. As Of Counsel at Fish, Theresa represented clients in complex patent litigation disputes at the federal district and appellate court levels and in the ITC. Prior to joining Fish, Theresa was a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Illinois, where she prosecuted white-collar criminal cases and represented the United States in several appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and multiple jury trials. Theresa’s civil litigation experience also includes several years of experience as an attorney at a prominent plaintiff-side intellectual property law firm in Dallas, where she handled the firm’s appellate matters, primarily related to patent litigation, emphasizing technology in the semiconductor, electronics, and software industries.
Theresa is a former law clerk for the Honorable Peter T. Fay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Theresa received her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she was an associate editor of the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy. Theresa received her B.S. in Business Management and M.S. in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University. Prior to law school, Theresa gained several years of experience as a software programmer and analyst.
In her free time, Theresa enjoys spending time with her two daughters, Kailey and Phoebe, and running.
