Natalie Anne Keleher Raffoul

Natalie Raffoul is a world-renowned IP lawyer and Managing Partner of BRION RAFFOUL LLP, a law firm specializing in intellectual property (IP) law, which she co-founded in 2008. She is also the co-founder of Fortress IAM™, a platform that helps small- and medium-sized companies manage their IP, contracts, and corporate data. Ms. Raffoul is a world-renowned expert in the patenting of software, business methods, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the legal and strategic issues surrounding such subject matter. Natalie is consistently ranked among the world’s leading patent practitioners in the IAM Patent 1000 publication annually since 2014, and shortlisted as one of the most Highly Recommended patent prosecutors in Canada. Since 2020 she has been recognized in the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists as a Global Leader in leading the way in the development and implementation of strategies that maximize the value of IP portfolios, and in 2025 she was named an IAM Global Leader , an elite distinction reserved for those ranked in the gold tier of the IAM Patent 1000. Natalie has also been recognized as a Highly Recommended Individual by IP STARS (Managing IP), where BRION RAFFOUL LLP is Silver-ranked, and in Who’s Who Legal as a world-leading expert for patents in Canada.

In 2019, Natalie was appointed to Ontario, Canada’s first Expert Panel on IP, chaired by Jim Balsillie, former CEO of BlackBerry, which culminated in the landmark 2020 Report: Intellectual Property in Ontario’s Innovation Economy. In 2020, she was appointed as an advisor to the Joint Ministers’ Roundtable on the Ontario Health Data Platform, chaired by Queen’s Dean of Health Sciences, Dr. Jane Philpott, and also became an IP advisor to the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). In 2026, Natalie was appointed a Fellow of the Balsillie Legal Advisory Centre, a unique-in-Canada centre for international trade and technology governance launched as part of the Balsillie School of International Affairs’ Digital Governance Initiative at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she also serves as a Fellow of the Balsillie School.