Suzanne Michel

Suzanne Michel is Senior Patent Counsel at Google where she focuses on patent policy from Google’s Washington, D.C. office. Before joining Google in 2011, she was Deputy Director in the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission where she worked on patent policy and IP/antitrust issues. At the FTC, she headed the project on the “Evolving IP Marketplace,” including the drafting of the Commission report, released in March 2011. The FTC awarded her the Paul Rand Dixon award and the Excellence in Supervision award.

Before joining the FTC in 2000, Suzanne worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as a patent litigator. Suzanne received her B.S. with honors from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University. She graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and received the prize for best paper published by a graduating student. Following law school, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Paul R. Michel (no relation) at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She is a registered patent attorney.