Melody Drummond Hansen

Drummond Hansen was under age five the first time she went to the Patent Office, where her favorite uncle was a patent examiner. Now, she is a respected patent litigator with victories across the country.

She chairs O’Melveny’s automated & connected vehicles, or AVC, industry group and she is an expert in the complex technologies used in cars that can drive themselves and talk to traffic signals.

“It’s the future of technology and the transportation industry,” she said. “It’s just a totally fascinating industry.”

What excites her is that the work encompasses a wide swath of legal fields, such as patent, privacy, regulation, competition, liability and even advertising, as well as a range of advanced technologies from microchips to artificial intelligence.

So far, her work involves counseling clients and assisting them in securing licenses and exemptions from regulators. Nearly all her clients are confidential at this point, including one who insists on being kept secret even from O’Melveny lawyers outside the group.

Drummond Hansen also has an active litigation practice. She will be co-lead counsel in a trial over call-center technology patents and trade secrets likely to begin in late May or early June. LivePerson Inc. v. 24/7 Customer Inc., 3:15-cv-02897 (N.D. Cal., filed June 22, 2015)

Early last year, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed her trial court victory and award of attorneys’ fees rebuffing a defamation action against a co-founder of the Open Source Initiative. Open Source Security Inc. v. Perens, 18-15189/18-1608 (9th Cir., Feb. 6, 2020)

She represents one of several thousand plaintiffs opposing tariffs on China before the U.S. Court of International Trade. Nortek Security & Control LLC v. United States, 1:20-cv-03185 (Ct. Int’l Trade, filed Sept. 21, 2020)

And she is part of an O’Melveny pro bono team that helped three minors who were facing deportation to El Salvador reunite with their father in the U.S. ACHC v. Barr, 1:20-cv-00770 (D. D.C., filed March 17, 2020).

“We put in an incredible amount of briefing and expert testimony around the danger [of returning the children to El Salvador] … and how being with your family is a human right,” Drummond Hansen said. “I’m passionate about it.”

— Don DeBenedictis