Jim has extensive experience as a lawyer representing corporate and non-profit clients in licensing, research collaboration and other technology transfer transactions in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Prior to FDR, Jim was a Counsel at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he provided legal support for the company’s drug discovery activities and major corporate alliances. Jim negotiated many multi-year, sponsored research collaborations with leading academic institutions involving millions of dollars in funding. He was the legal representative on business development initiatives to license discovery tools and early stage drug candidates, and to establish and conclude product-specific development programs. Jim also served as Millennium’s primary counselor on evolving issues in the areas of medical privacy and informed consent requirements for research.

Before Millennium, Jim was in-house counsel for The Institute for Genomic Research - TIGR (now the J. Craig Venter Institute), one of the first non-profit research centers to incorporate novel technologies in large scale gene discovery research. Joining the Institute shortly after its inception, he established key parts of the legal framework for its activities with industry and academia. Jim also negotiated the terms of early stage research collaborations and agreements covering transfer of materials and confidential information, database access and publication of research results. Jim was a member of the Institute’s Institutional Review Board and helped assure its compliance with applicable regulations and conditions of federal research grants.

Jim began his career with a general practice law firm in Maryland. Jim received a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law.