Strategic legal services built for life sciences startups without the law firm overhead.

    • IP strategy across complex portfolios (gene therapy/editing, delivery technologies, biologics, AI/ML platforms), including restructuring large, multijurisdiction portfolios

    • Partner with IP firms for global IP protection (interweaving patent, design, trademark and copyright together), handling IP disputes and enforcement

    • Central source for IP diligence for financings, partnerships, and investor outreach

    • Strategic commercial contract drafting and negotiation (multi-million-dollar upfronts and royalties) handling research, collaboration, confidentiality, material transfer, manufacturing, leasing, clinical trial, and vendor agreements

    • Establish contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems

    • Guidance through entity formation, M&A, and financing deals

    • Manage board relations and corporate records

    • Cross-functional collaborator with R&D, Clinical Ops, HR, and Finance

    • Experience as executive leader to build bridges across scientific, legal, business, and investor communities

    • Diplomatic negotiator and relationship manager

    • Guidance for developing lean, cost-effective legal departments and external counsel management

    • Develop and implement governance policies (e.g., signatory authority, code of conduct, whistleblower, insider trading, crisis protocols), private and public-company policies

    • Central legal liaison for IPO preparation and SEC compliance

    • Advise on CFIUS, Nagoya Protocol, FinCEN disclosure rules, export controls, and government watchlist screenings

    • Design and institute data protection protocols for clinical research

Kelly J. Morgan

Ph.D. J.D. / PRINCIPAL

Over the last two decades, Dr. Kelly Morgan has guided legal and executive teams in creative solutions to maximize growth with measurable corporate outcomes.  While she specializes in IP and transactional law, she is at heart a corporate strategist that leans into a balanced approach to create logical legal solutions.  Prior to Dr. Morgan’s legal career, her doctorate and post-doctoral studies were focused on investigating juvenile and infant leukemias as a stem cell biologist.  Outside the biotech world, she is an enthusiastic whisky lover, mom to an animal menagerie and empty-nester.

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