Christopher Jeffers and Four Attorneys Join Washington, D.C. Office

Mintz, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. announced that a group of attorneys, formerly of Womble Carlyle, has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice. Led by Dr. Chris Jeffers, the group is based in the firm’s Washington D.C. office. 

The news comes on the heels of the addition of a group of eighteen intellectual property attorneys who recently joined the firm’s Boston office from Edwards Wildman, as well as expansion of the San Diego IP practice.

“As we continue to build across key practice areas of the firm and attract talented laterals – more than two dozen in the last twelve months - we are expanding not only our bench strength in important areas like IP and litigation, but the services we can provide to our clients both domestically and internationally,” said Robert I. Bodian, Managing Member of Mintz

Dr. Jeffers’ practice focuses exclusively on the IP and commercial needs of clients in the life science industry, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, diagnostics and medical device companies. In addition to developing strategies for the management and enforcement of large intellectual property portfolios, Dr. Jeffers and his team have particular expertise in handling complex commercial transactions involving intellectual property.  This includes many types of corporate partnerships including in-licensing and out-licensing, joint development agreements, CRADAs, mergers and acquisitions, sponsored research agreements, commercialization agreements, and manufacturing and supply agreements. Dr. Jeffers’ team also has extensive experience with the design and implementation of complex licensing and partnering plans for monetizing IP portfolios.  In addition, the group is often engaged for consultation on technical projects and technical due diligence in areas ranging from pharmaceutical discovery and development, medical device and diagnostic development, and stem cell scaffolds and therapeutic uses. 

In addition to his law firm experience, Dr. Jeffers was General Counsel and Vice President of Alba Therapeutics Corporation in Baltimore, MD, where he also served as the interim Vice President of Drug Discovery Operations, and is currently serving as either outside General Counsel or outside Chief Patent Counsel to various small and mid-sized life science companies.  Dr. Jeffers was the co-founder and Managing Member of FirstStage Bioventures, LLC. and was co-founder of Seguro Surgical and EncephRx Pharmaceuticals.  Prior to law school he spent 9 years working as a medical technologist and clinical laboratory scientist in various clinical laboratories for both the U.S. military and civilian hospitals.  Dr. Jeffers was awarded a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Houston, and was a post-doctoral fellow at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“With world-class credentials and experience in both industry and law, Chris and his team are a tremendous complement to our growing practice,in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as nationally and internationally,” said Michael T. Renaud, Division Head for the Intellectual Property Section and serves as a member of the Firm’s Policy Committee.

“Together with the talented IP attorneys in our Washington office and across the firm, this group will greatly enhance the IP counsel we can provide to our clients, particularly those in the medical device and diagnostics sectors,” added Susan W. Berson, Managing Member of Mintz Washington, D.C. office and also a member of Mintz Policy Committee. “We are delighted to welcome Chris and his colleagues to the Washington office and to the firm.”

Also joining from Womble Carlyle are Of Counsel Lawrence “Butch” Carroll and Elizabeth Parsons.  Dr. Carroll, who received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, is a former Patent Examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, worked as an in-house IP Manager at Life Technologies, and is an expert in drafting and prosecuting patent applications, and preparing patentability, infringement, validity, freedom to operate and inventorship opinions.  Ms. Parsons focuses her practice on intellectual property transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing and commercialization agreements and other technology-related agreements. In addition, two associates, Dana Mahadeo, a former patent agent with Medimmune who holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and focuses on patent prosecution, counseling and litigation support; and John Forrest, who has extensive patent prosecution experience in biotechnology, electrochemistry, medical devices and materials science, have also joined the firm.