July 22, 2024 (San Diego) – Four Procopio partners who provide life sciences and medtech clients valuable corporate, intellectual property, and real estate legal services have been named 2024 Leaders of Influence in Life Sciences by the San Diego Business Journal. The four recognized attorneys—David Crawford, Noel Gillespie, Paul Johnson 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.

David Crawford provides legal counsel on a wide array of real estate transactions in San Diego and globally, including financing, development, construction, project finance, joint ventures, and leasing; as he puts it, “anything connected to dirt, sticks and bricks.” He has negotiated numerous transactions involving life sciences-focused real estate, including a sale-leaseback of an 18.4-acre, 250,000 square foot pharma headquarters in Carlsbad, and represented Neurocrine Biosciences in negotiations for its 535,000-square-foot, build-to-suit headquarters, the largest leasing transaction in San Diego history by dollar value. His life sciences projects include leasing, development, construction, acquisition and dispositions of headquarters offices, manufacturing facilities, R&D labs, various other facilities. He facilitates real estate financing for both borrowers and lenders, including portfolio lending, construction loans, term facilities, re-financings and synthetic leases, as well as transactions with mixed collateral. David for several years has been named a Best Lawyers One to Watch.

Noel Gillespie advises both startup and mature life sciences and medtech clients on strategic patent portfolio development and implementation to protect their technology and achieve their business objectives, the most important being market share and premium pricing. Previously the co-leader of Procopio’s Life Sciences practice, Noel has extensive experience working with diagnostic, genomic, digital health, and medical devices companies, bringing a particular specialization with respect to the integration of AI, sensors, and the cloud into life science and medtech applications. His approach to patent portfolio development helps clients ensure their patents guard these important objectives from the very beginning, even on a tight budget. For the last two years he has been named to the IAM Patent 1000 list and the WIPR IP Leaders list.

Paul Johnson helps life sciences and medtech entrepreneurs and their investors get companies formed, funded and sold, including initial company formation, negotiation of seed, early and mid-stage equity financings, and buy and sell-side mergers and acquisitions. His life sciences clients have included pioneers in genomics (DNA and RNA), oligo synthesis services, clinical stage pharmaceuticals, biotech, and therapeutics. He is also adept at venture capital investments, public and private securities offering and compliance and general business counseling. Paul has also counseled some of San Diego’s most successful companies in Securities and Exchange Commission compliance and general corporate governance. He is the leader of Procopio’s Emerging Growth & Venture Capital practice and co-leader of its Mergers & Acquisitions practice, and is recognized by Best Lawyers for Corporate Law. Paul was also named a 2024 Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer.

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. 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. Recognized by IAM on its Patent 1000 list and WIPR on its IP Leaders list, he is a member of the firm’s Management Committee and co-leader of Procopio’s Life Sciences practice and its Technology Transactions and Licensing practice.

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®, Best Law Firms®, Super Lawyers®, Martindale-Hubbell®, and Chambers®. In 2024 Law360 ranked Procopio #6 for attorney diversity among U.S. mid-size law firms, and Procopio is recognized by Diversity Lab as a Mansfield Certified Plus law firm, its highest recognition.