Your Partner at PSL

Professional Chops

I focus on meeting the needs of small and medium sized corporations in their early growth phases and have decades of experience building cost-effective patent portfolio strategies and IP Licensing for commercialization.

I started in private practice with the law firms Allegretti & Witcoff (Chicago), Sterne Kessler (Wash. DC) and Hayes & Soloway PC (Tucson) where I learned the basics of practicing law.  I then moved to in-house roles as IP Counsel, with three stints as in-house Intellectual Property Counsel with Fortune 500 companies Bayer Corporation (Pharmaceuticals Division), Roche Group/Ventana Medical Systems (Senior Director of IP) and lastly Danher Corp. (Senior Director of IP for the Water Quality Group).  For the last two and a half years I have been General Counsel to an alternative energy startup in Florida.  Altogether I have twenty-nine years of experience as an Attorney, eight in private practice and twenty-one in corporate settings.

This diverse background has exposed me to several distinctly different legal practices and technology areas.  For example, at Bayer I was responsible for the Biological Products division where I was responsible for both the IP concerns of the Plasma processing group in North Carolina, and the recombinant biologicals group in Berkley, CA.  At Ventana Medical Systems I started the legal function which grew into a department of five lawyers and support staff.  While there I orchestrated the expansion of the patent portfolio three-fold, managed three simultaneous patent litigations against competitors, and became the sole lawyer representing the companion diagnostic program.  Ventana was ultimately bought out by Roche for 14X sales.  At Danaher I was responsible for the Water Quality Group’s IP issues.  I implemented a world-wide patent management function, added automated competitive intelligence monitoring, engaged in monetizing a portion of Hach’s patent portfolio, and supported a successful re-negotiation of a key product portfolio which ultimately saved the company multi-millions of dollars in royalties.  

Given these experiences with real-world business outcomes, I am well-positioned to act as a strategic IP attorney to small- and medium-sized science or IP-based companies.  My technical background is in Chemistry and the life sciences, but I am also comfortable advising in related areas such as Technology and software.  

Prior to law school I was a practicing Analytical Chemist.  I have professional experience developing analytical processes using Liquid Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry and IR Spectroscopy.  I established and ran the Analytical Lab facility at Brandeis University for three years and developed numerous analytical methods for the biochemistry and chemistry departments.  

I have also developed a personal interest in assisting startups and small companies to not only develop and defend their IP, but to also become successful financially.  I have invested in a dozen or so small startup companies as an Angel Investor, and so I have become keenly aware of the role that IP plays in a startup’s life.  I was an active member of the Board of the Tucson, Arizona Desert Angels from 2008-2012.