By
Jim Baer
Last fall, three local attorneys shocked the subdued pin-striped
local legal profession by forming a firm specializing solely
in the life sciences industry. There are virtually no other
law firms in the U.S. with the same working arrangement. This
was a bold step for three adventurous risk-takers.
Until that announcement, working with life sciences was always
just a part or division of a major law firm. Kevin Buckley,
Tara Nealey and Saul Zackson left Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal
LLP for the unchartered world of biotech based legal work in
November of 2006.
This is cutting-edge legal work for the cutting-edge world of
biotechnology. The trio of patent attorneys is moving into legal
work for medical therapies, vaccines, stem cell research, pharma
and nanotechnology, agricultural biotechnology and bio energy.
The three have vast experience in counseling clients on medical
therapies including micro arrays, pharmacogenomics and RNA interference.
They have already worked with a broad range of clients, from
individual scientists and startups to universities, private
research institutes and Fortune 500 companies.
This is quite the leap of faith.
“Fortunately for us, there were senior attorneys at our firm
who served as mentors and personal friends and were very gracious
about our moving away,” states Nealey. A blend of deep experience
and relative youth with boundless energy was all required to
make this move a possibility. Attorneys with less experience
couldn’t cut the rigors or intellectual demands of the task.
In a nutshell, Biotactica wants to become business partners
with scientists who are rapidly developing cutting-edge intellectual
properties. “Your capital is your personal talents you can develop
for your clients,” reveals Nealey. “Our clients have great ideas
and tight budgets and we deal with that accordingly,” she indicates.
The firm’s business model is functioning as strategic consultants
while working on equity-based and contingency fees. In essence,
the three attorneys believe in the intellectual properties of
their clients to the point they are willing to collect their
fees by becoming business partners. And that makes them very
unique in the scientific field. As scientific ideas take roots
and grow, their opportunities for security are greatly enhanced.
Playing match-maker with venture capitalists is an important
part of what they do. They don’t hesitate getting involved in
the business plan of their clients, in hopes of moving their
ideas to market more rapidly.
Established law firms will typically bill their clients in the
hundreds of dollars per hour range, no matter the personal involvement.
Biotactica is betting on future development and medical breakthroughs
to provide the riches down the road.
Biotactica performs legal work throughout the U.S. and overseas.
They maintain a strategic alliance with Kini International Business
Advisory Pvt., Ltd., an Indian consulting firm based in Bangalore.
Already, Biotactica is doing business with medical firms in
India and China.
The trio of attorneys mine for companies with the most prominent
technological ideas. “We focus on clients who have the most
promising ideas. Our goal is to enhance their ideas, to provide
legal services and put together solid patents and early to gain
the most results,” says Buckley.
“We immerse ourselves in our client’s business. Forming strategic
alliances with our partners is our business model. We want to
shepherd technology for our clients through markets as quickly
as we can,” he says.
At the moment, the partners are unwilling to name clients by
name. Fact is, they represent the largest private research institute
in the country, and the largest university system also. They
deal with startups on both the East and West Coast. “We want
to be very smart about how we chose to grow,” reveals Nealey.
“We have to adapt our plans to reality,” says Buckley, president
of the organization.
For now, developing new business will be focused on the biotechnical
business going on from St. Louis spreading westward to Kansas
City. When asked if they prefer working with university research
or private industry, Nealy says it this way: “That’s like asking
do you prefer a Red Ferrari or a Blue Ferrari?”
“Let’s just say the focus at universities is to publish. Focusing
in on the business model at a university is not as critical
as focusing in on private firms,” she says. Talent-rich St.
Louis leaves plenty of elbow room, considering mighty firms
and organizations the likes of the Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center, CORTEX, Monsanto, Pfizer Pharma-ceutical, the Nidus
Center, Mallinckrodt Chemical, Sigma-Aldrich are all based here,
and require copious amounts of legal work.
The question begs, do the partners need more attorneys in the
firm to grow? “Let’s say, at the moment, we are not working
18 hour days to make it all happen. If we do, then we will look
at expanding the staff,” Nealey says. The firm is constantly
being solicited by attorneys wanting to join the partnership.
About the Principals in Biotactica:
Kevin Buckley, founder and
president, is a patent attorney and previously was a biochemist
in both academia and in industry. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry/
Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego where
he was a research scholar. He received his law degree from the
University of Pittsburgh School of Law and was with Sonnenschein
Nath & Rosenthal LLP before moving to the new company. In 2005,
he was named one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s
40 Under Forty, and in 2006, was selected to Who’s Who in
America. His specialty means working with clients in developing,
acquiring and commercializing biotechnologies, pharmaceuticals
and industrial chemical technologies.
Dr. Tara Nealey, vice president
for commercialization is a patent attorney with experience as
a research scientist in the field of neurophysiology. She holds
an A.B. in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University, Providence,
R.I. and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Rochester
School of Medicine. She was a post-doctoral research fellow
at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University under
a National Research Service Award. She earned her law degree
from Saint Louis University School of Law, magna cum laude and
came from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP. Her scientific
work has been published in leading peer-reviewed publications
such as Nature and Journal of Neuroscience. As a patent attorney,
she has counseled a wide range of clients in a variety of life
science technology projects.
Dr. Saul Zackson, vice president
for patents is a patent attorney who brings to Biotactica a
wide range experience with life science technologies, including
molecular cloning, development of monoclonal antibodies, imaging
technologies and production and use of transgenic animals. He
graduated with honors from Yale University as a biochemistry
major, attended Cambridge University for one year as a Churchill
Scholar and obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University
of California at Berkeley. He conducted postdoctoral research
at Princeton University and the Roche Institute of Molecular
Biology before joining the faculty at the University of Calgary
in Alberta Canada. He has his law degree from Franklin Pierce
Law Center and also comes to Biotactica from Sonnenshein Nath
& Rosenthal LLP.
Biotactica’s offices are located on Craig Road in Creve Coeur.
