June 24, 2023 (San Diego): Three Procopio partners active in our Life Sciences practice who provide industry clients valuable corporate, intellectual property, licensing and other legal services have been named 2023 Leaders of Influence in Life Sciences by the San Diego Business Journal. The three recognized attorneys—Dennis Doucette, Jeff Morton and Xiaofan “Frank” Yang—are award-winning attorneys with distinctive backgrounds suited to represent medical device designers and manufacturers, innovators in the biologics, genomic, diagnostic, e-health, digital health technologies, and other life sciences companies.

Dennis Doucette leads Procopio’s Business and Technology Team, which includes its Emerging Growth and Venture Capital, Capital Markets and Securities, and Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Joint Ventures practices. He focuses on buyers, sellers and investors in mergers, stock and asset purchases, management buyouts, reorganizations and related transactions. He has extensive experience with formations, corporate stock issuances, recapitalizations and reorganizations, stock restriction agreements, officers and directors advice, equity incentives/compensation, higher education compliance/governance, securities compliance and corporate governance. Dennis has participated in more than 450 corporate finance transactions, including corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions and venture financing. He is recognized by Super Lawyers® for Mergers & Acquisitions and Best Lawyers® for Corporate Compliance Law, Corporate Law, and Securities/Capital Markets Law, and twice has been named to the San Diego Business Journal SD 500 list of the county’s most influential leaders. Dennis is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Jeff Morton leads Procopio’s Life Sciences practice and co-leads its Licensing and Technology Transactions practice. He provides strategic intellectual property advice, including patent prosecution, and related transactional support for emerging and mature companies in a wide variety of industries, with a particular focus on life sciences and medical technologies. A PhD immunologist, he has extensive patent experience in technologies including genomics, immunology, and gene editing technologies, and advises on complex freedom-to-operate life sciences issues. Jeff provides cross-border legal advice with Canadian clients, being admitted in both the U.S. and Canada. He has also been recognized as a WIPR Intellectual Property Leader; named to the IAM Patent 1000, Strategy 300 Global Leaders and World-Leading IP Strategists lists; is named to Best Lawyers® in Biotechnology and Life Sciences; and has for the last two years has been recognized on the San Diego Business Journal SD 500 list of the county’s most influential leaders.

Xiaofan “Frank” Yang provides comprehensive IP strategic counseling to public and private biotechnology, pharmaceutical, digital health and medical device companies. His patent counseling and prosecution experience creates and protects IP assets as primary value propositions for growth enterprises in all stages of business, from proof of concept to clinical development, regulatory approval and product launch. Frank is also experienced in conducting due diligence in complex venture financings, public offerings, partnering/licensing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. He has a global client base, including companies and investors in U.S., Europe, and Asia. After obtaining his B.S. in polymer chemistry and Ph.D. in organic synthesis, Frank worked as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry for more than four years before becoming a patent practitioner in 2006. Recognized on the 2023 IAM Patent 1000 list, he is a member of Procopio’s Management Committee.

Dennis and Jeff sat for an interview with the San Diego Business Journal and provided insights on the San Diego life sciences ecosystem, focused on strategic ways for emerging growth and established companies to raise capital and grow their businesses with a strategic approach to building a targeted intellectual property portfolio.

Procopio’s Life Sciences attorneys bring decades of law firm and in-house counsel experience—from life-saving pharmaceuticals to breakthrough biotechnologies—offering a unique understanding of your legal challenges and opportunities in a rapidly evolving, multidisciplinary industry. Whether an emerging company or an established multinational, Procopio provides its clients a wide range of legal services including corporate formation, financing and venture capital, intellectual property counseling and litigation, licensing, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. Our molecular biology experience includes gene therapy, personalized cancer immunotherapy, TCRs, antibodies/peptibodies; antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs); protein therapeutics, cancer therapies, cellular immunotherapy, nucleic acids, as well as next-generation sequencing and modern genomics. Our chemistry technical expertise includes pharmaceuticals, industrial biotechnology, organic chemistry and polymer chemistry, in areas as diverse as peptide pharmaceuticals, adhesives, drug delivery technology, and medical devices.

Procopio attorneys and practice groups are routinely named to various legal rankings lists, including Best Lawyers®, Super Lawyers®, Martindale-Hubbell®, and Chambers®. Law360 and American Lawyer place Procopio high in their rankings for law firm diversity, and Procopio is recognized by Diversity Lab as a Mansfield Certified Plus law firm, one of only a few dozen in the United States.