Dickstein Shapiro LLP is pleased to announce that Atulya R. Agarwal has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice as partner, effective April 1, in its Palo Alto, California office. He joins the firm from Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was a senior vice president and served as Elan’s chief intellectual property officer. Dr. Agarwal has more than two decades of life-sciences experience, including 10-plus years as in-house IP counsel to biopharmaceutical companies. His arrival strengthens the firm’s biotechnology patent prosecution, strategy, and licensing practices in Palo Alto, and his practice will leverage his extensive industry and in-house experience to assist companies in developing IP strategies to maximize the value of their portfolios by protecting assets and products though patent counseling, prosecution, due diligence, transactions, and litigation.

“Dickstein Shapiro is committed to assertively growing its IP team in Silicon Valley, and Atulya is a wonderfully talented attorney who possesses a unique and valuable in-house perspective of building and managing IP portfolios to achieve a client’s business objectives,” said Robert Dickerson, co-leader of Dickstein Shapiro’s Intellectual Property Practice. “Atulya has successfully developed and implemented full-scale IP portfolios for two industry leading U.S. biotech companies. This kind of experience is rare in law firms and will be invaluable to our life sciences clients.”

“Having worked with Dickstein Shapiro in the past from the client side, I can say, without hesitation, that Dickstein Shapiro is all about its clients,” said Dr. Agarwal “The firm’s intellectual property team makes it a point to understand the client’s business, and the team is absolutely motivated and passionate in doing the best job possible with the highest level of ethics and integrity. I am excited to work with such an experienced and savvy group of attorneys on behalf of our clients.”

Dr. Agarwal’s legal career spans more than 15 years and includes serving as the chief intellectual property officer for Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s IP function, including patent, trademark, copyright, transactional, diligence, and litigation matters. From 2000 to 2011, he served in various legal capacities at Genentech, Inc., ultimately as Head of Patents for Oncology, a role in which he managed the company’s vast oncology-focused patent portfolio, as well as a team of about 20 patent attorneys and agents. Dr. Agarwal’s previous law firm experience includes working as an associate, summer associate, and law clerk in the Washington, DC and Palo Alto, California offices of Pennie & Edmonds LLP, as well as at Rae-Venter Law Group in Palo Alto, California, where he was a technology advisor and law clerk. Dr. Agarwal earned his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine, and his B.S. in biochemistry from The Pennsylvania State University.

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