Our Professionals

Dan owns the Acuity Law Group, which succeeds the BioTechnology Law Group, which he founded in May 2002 after more than 10 years of practicing as an attorney in both corporate and law firm settings.  He has been registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1990, and he is admitted to practice law in California. He has extensive legal experience relating to patents, opinion letters, and licensing. His research experience draws from his training in biology (BA; University of California, Los Angeles (1985)) and more than four years of molecular biology-based research in academia (UCLA and Duke, 1985-1988) and industry (Amgen, 1988-1989).

With regard to patents, Dan has substantial experience in various fields relevant to biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, including molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, gene therapy, and chemistry, as well as other technology areas, principally medical devices and automotives.  His clients have included Amgen, where he served first as a patent agent and then as corporate counsel; Viagene, where he was the Company’s sole in-house attorney, GeneFormatics, where he served as Vice President, Intellectual Property and then as General Counsel, as well as SUGEN, Gen-Probe, Geron, Biosite, Wyntek Diagnostics, Lpath, and Cardiothoracic Systems, which he represented while in private practice at Lyon & Lyon and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.  In this context, he has provided the full range of services, from implementing invention identification and tracking mechanisms to counseling inventors, drafting and prosecuting patent applications (including interference practice), and handling post-issuance proceedings.

In addition to his extensive prosecution experience, Dan has also prepared many patentability, non-infringement, validity, and freedom-to-operate opinions.  He also is available to mediate patent-related disputes, either before or after litigation has commenced, and he has also served as a patent expert in litigation.

Dan also has extensive experience in licensing matters, ranging from assisting start-up clients in developing a basic set of standard form agreements (e.g., 1- and 2-way non-disclosure agreements, material transfer agreements, consulting agreements, etc.) to multi-million dollar strategic collaboration agreements. His expertise in this area includes not only drafting definitive agreements, but also in the strategic conception and negotiation of the relevant business and legal documents.

Outside of the practice of law, Dan enjoys spending time with his wife and children, automobiles and racing, exercising regularly, woodworking, and traveling.  He has also co-founded two privately held life sciences companies.  He can be reached directly at 858.350.9690 or dan@acuitylg.com.

Mike was formerly Vice President of Intellectual Properties for Biosite Incorporated, leaving at the end of 2007 following Biosite's acquisition by Inverness Medical Innovations for $1.6B.  While at Biosite, Mike was responsible for strategic guidance and direction with regard to worldwide intellectual property issues, including, invention disclosures, patent applications, corporate trade secrets, domain names, copyrights and trademarks, and also served as a general corporate legal advisor.  Prior to joining Biosite, Mike worked in the intellectual property group at the law firm of Foley & Lardner.

Mike received his law degree from the University of San Diego in 2000, from which he graduated magna cum laude. While completing his legal training, Mike also worked as a patent agent and law clerk at the law firms of Lyon & Lyon and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.

Mike brings an extensive background in biology and chemistry to his practice of law.  He received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, followed by a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1983.  He subsequently spent fifteen years as a biomedical researcher, and is an author on 20 peer reviewed scientific articles and numerous meeting abstracts, including publications in the journals Science, Nature, Cell, and the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Mike can be reached directly at 619.203.3186 or mike@acuitylg.com.

Nancy is a transactional and intellectual property lawyer with over 20 years of experience, gained in large law firms and in-house.  She is currently providing fractional general counsel services for companies that are not yet large enough to need full-time, in-house counsel.  She was a shareholder with the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll.  Before that, she served as Vice President and General Counsel for ActivX Biosciences and held several positions at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, most recently Vice President and General Counsel.  Additionally, Nancy has provided legal support for Takeda San Diego and GE Capital Solutions Global Electronics Services.  Prior to her in-house experience, Nancy was an associate with Lyon & Lyon and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable David R. Thompson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  She received her J.D. from the University of Oregon, her MBA from the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego and her B.S. in zoology from the University of Wisconsin.

Nancy can be reached directly at 858.945.8719 or nancy@acuitylg.com.