919.865.1111
kertmer@wyrick.com
Bio
Katie is a corporate lawyer who works in the areas of company formation, corporate financing, product financing, intellectual property licensing, and complex research and development collaborations. Katie represents companies and investors of all sizes in transactions involving venture capital investments, private placements, royalty financings, and strategic partnerships. In the IP-transaction side of her practice, Katie is experienced in negotiating agreements ranging from university licenses to cross-border development and commercialization agreements for companies ranging in size from a single founder to large multi-national corporations.
Katie received her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California. Before law school, Katie worked as a city planner for two cities in Northern California. She received her J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Duke Law School, where she was a Mordecai Scholar and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Duke Law Journal. Prior to joining the firm, Katie clerked on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable James A. Wynn, Jr.
Katie teaches an upper-level course on intellectual property transactions at Duke Law School, where she is a Senior Lecturing Fellow of Law.
- Listed among Business North Carolina Magazine Legal Elite: Business (2024)
- Listed among Business North Carolina Magazine Legal Elite: Young Guns (2022)
- Listed among North Carolina Super Lawyers Business/Corporate – Rising Star (2022, 2023)
- Represented large pharmaceutical company on a license and co-development transaction with a university spin-out.
- Served as lead-investor’s counsel in $70,000,000 revenue interest financing transaction with a specialty pharmaceutical company.
- Served as outside general counsel to various university spin-out companies on matters that include formation, financing, and securing intellectual property rights.
- Represented lead investor in $100,000,000 pharmaceutical product financing transaction.
- Represented large pharmaceutical company in venture and strategic investment transactions with early-stage product development companies.
- Individualized vs. Generalized Assessments: Why RLUIPA Should Not Apply to Every Land-Use Request, 62 Duke L.J. 79 (2012)
