Shelby Yuan is an associate in the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice.
Shelby represents clients in intellectual property litigation, with a focus on patent litigation in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and life sciences industries. She is also a United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) registered patent attorney. Shelby’s recent experience includes representing a leading gene therapy company co-founded by a Nobel laureate in patent litigation.
Shelby earned her JD from Northwestern University. During law school, she served as a Managing Executive Editor of the Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property and worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant for intellectual property and tax courses.
Shelby received her PhD and MS in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University, where her doctoral research focused on the development of self-assembling organic materials for cartilage regeneration. She is the first-named inventor on a patent issued in 2026 relating to self-assembling peptide amphiphile molecules that mimic a growth factor to promote cartilage repair. Shelby received her BS in bioengineering from Harvard University, with a minor in computer science. She has first-authored and co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications.