Alumna Profile: Michelle Armond (BS '00)

Michelle Armond (BS '00, electrical engineering and history) loves being a lawyer. Informed by her Caltech undergraduate training, Armond's two-decade professional journey as an intellectual property litigator is marked by her unique ability to navigate both legal and technical complexity. Five years ago, Armond's career took a bold turn when she and a colleague started their own law firm in 2019, Armond Wilson LLP.

ENGenuity spoke with Armond to explore her transition from electrical engineering to law and how her Caltech education empowered her to embrace risk and confidently navigate the unknown.

ENGenuity: How would you describe your professional contributions and what you are currently doing?

Michelle Armond: I'm an intellectual property litigator and lucky enough to work with innovative companies. I'm in court nonstop and handle cases across the country. I'm known for winning patent cases that are both legally and technically complex, and then defending them on appeal. My work is incredibly varied. I'm lucky that I don't do the same thing all day. Sometimes you'll find me defending patent rights; other times I'm killing patents that have been asserted against clients. My Caltech education has powered my success because I know the technology, and Caltech taught me I can learn anything. I've had cases where we needed to delve into source code, or study electron microscope images of semiconductors, or pull out the old Phys 2 textbook and take a deep dive into quantum mechanics.

ENGenuity: How did you go from electrical engineering at Caltech to patent law?

Armond: I showed up at Caltech wanting to be an electrical engineer. At the time it seemed like everyone else had been inspired by Richard Feynman and was an aspiring physics major. I have always been intrigued by science and engineering, but I love the humanities too and have also been an avid reader and strong writer. Once I got to Caltech with such a strong focus on technology, I realized I needed to find an outlet for my creative side. That led me to look for careers where I could use both sides. I'm so glad that patent law turned out to be everything I hoped for. On a day-to-day basis, I get to use my technical degree and spend a lot of time writing briefs, which is a perfect combination of my strengths.

ENGenuity: Is there an area of patent law that excites or energizes you the most?

Armond: A lot of lawyers that come to law school with technical degrees end up as patent prosecution attorneys, where they file patent applications and try to get patents issued from the Patent Office. That was absolutely not for me. I'm on the enforcement and defense side. My practice is in the courtroom, and it is a team-based practice. It can be contentious and requires a lot of creativity. I enjoy making the technology and patent law accessible and understandable to judges and juries.

ENGenuity: Can you elaborate on how your Caltech education influenced you throughout law school and your career?

Armond: Attending Caltech was more than just technical training; in some ways it helped my legal career more than going to law school. We all know Caltech's reputation for providing a very rigorous curriculum. I still have it seared in my mind walking through the undergraduate houses late at night when I was a student and seeing study groups working on their homework together. I remember gathering with my classmates and struggling through problem sets that none of us could do individually. That experience, which would happen almost daily, left me with two lessons. The first is that teamwork is critical. If you have the right team that works well together and supports each other, you can surmount any obstacle. As a result, I have always looked for my team. Second, Caltech gave me incredible confidence in my abilities. My Caltech education showed me that I can achieve more than I ever thought possible. I know that I can learn anything, so almost nothing intimidates me, and that is very empowering.

ENGenuity: Is there a professor at Caltech that made a significant impact on you?

Armond: There are two, actually. On the technical side, I learned so much from Professor Glen George [Teaching Professor of Electrical Engineering]. In my day, he taught a class called EE5X, which was the sophomore-level lab class where he taught building and programming embedded systems from the ground up. It was no joke—a figurative moat that stood between the students and graduating with an EE degree. I spent a lot of time in the sub-basement of Moore soldering and programming chips, but what I learned most was about problem solving and persistence. Later I was a TA for EE5X and helped other students paddle across. The other professor that changed my life was history Professor William Deverell, who now heads up USC's Institute on California and the West. I double-majored in history, and because there were only two of us, all my history upper-division classes were solo seminars taught by Bill or one of his History Department colleagues. He taught me how to think and write and was a big influence on my attending law school. I'm still close with Glen and Bill to this day, and very grateful for what they both taught me.

ENGenuity: What advice would you give to recent Caltech graduates?

Armond: Embrace serendipity. When I graduated from Caltech, I knew I was going to law school, and I thought that I had my career path all figured out. I did end up becoming a lawyer, but no other part of my career went exactly the way I thought it would. Things are going to go wrong; unexpected opportunities are going to arise—embrace it. If you are prepared, open to new challenges, and are willing to stretch yourself and say 'yes,' the opportunities will find you.

ENGenuity: Is there a project or case that you are most proud of in your career?

Armond: It's hard to name one thing. Right after law school, I went to work at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., which is essentially the Supreme Court of patent law and hears every U.S. patent appeal. Really, there's no better way to start your career than apprenticing to a great judge. I was lucky to serve as a law clerk to Judge Richard Linn, and he has been a mentor for my entire career since. Now I've worked at several prominent firms; I was promoted to equity partner and later law firm practice group leader. But my proudest accomplishment was a little over 5 years ago when I decided to take a risk with Douglas Wilson, who clerked with me for Judge Linn, and start our own law firm. We've had so much success at our firm, and I don't think we could have achieved this in the large law firm ecosystem.

ENGenuity: What makes a small law firm successful?

Armond: Large law firms have an established way of doing things. I want my law practice to be innovative, nimble, and creative. We embrace technology and take a project-management approach that allows our attorneys to focus on winning. We have a team approach and no bureaucracy, which helps us get better results. Our modern approach has made our firm very successful.

ENGenuity: What is your favorite book or story?

Armond: I'm still an avid Survivor fan. The whole premise of throwing a group of people together, voting each other off one by one, and then persuading the same people who were voted off to select a winner in the end is always an interesting strategic and psychological experiment.

ENGenuity: What is your favorite destination?

Armond: Travel is perhaps my favorite pastime. I love traveling solo in Japan. I just got back from the Galapagos this spring and have had wonderful experiences in the wilds of Australia and Africa. I enjoy going off the grid and seeing all the amazing things that we have on our diverse planet.

ENGenuity: What keeps you up at night?

Armond: I'm just a little bit of a perfectionist. I'm always thinking about what I've missed and what I can fine tune and improve.

ENGenuity: What gets you up in the morning?

Armond: Spending time with my wonderful family, brilliant husband, and supportive circle of friends. The excitement of heading into the office and tackling the day's challenge. Life is short, and I promised myself to always be inspired by what I'm doing.