Overview
Paul R. DeStefano provides strategic-planning counsel related to the formation, finance and operations of start-up companies in the life sciences industry. He regularly acts on behalf of US companies and investors in accessing technology and markets in Europe and Asia, and advises Japanese, German, British, French, Korean and Swiss companies in accessing US markets and capital. He also regularly advises US and European academic institutions in licensing, company formation and funding issues.
In his more than 40 years of international practice and more than 30 years of concentrating in the life sciences, Paul has represented US companies in raising billions of dollars through strategic alliances with foreign investors and collaborators. He has been involved as counsel in the founding of almost 200 life sciences companies around the world and in more than 40 initial public offerings (IPOs). Paul also serves as an advisor to a number of foreign investment banks and funds with respect to potential investments in the United States and regularly sits as an expert witness with respect to the valuation of intellectual property.
Paul speaks and writes regularly on legal and technology issues, particularly those related to the biological sciences. He also has been a lecturer on biotechnology and the law at Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley School of Law and Pennsylvania State University (Dickinson) School of Law, and has lectured on food and drug law at Santa Clara University School of Law and University of San Francisco School of Law.
Results
- Represented US start-ups in raising more than $250 million from the venture capital community
- Raised more than $300 million in “strategic alliances” and more than $200 million in R&D limited partnerships
Community
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Academy of Sciences, advisor on the commercialization of human gene therapy
- National Academy of Sciences and California Senate, advisor on vaccine liability issues
- California AIDS Vaccine Advisory Panel
- Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic, advisor
- Scottish Development Agency, Max Planck Institute and the Weizmann Institute of Israel, advisor on the commercialization of local-origin technologies
Credentials
Education
Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, MA Candidate, 1981
University of Southern California – Gould School of Law, JD, 1974
Dickinson College, BA, 1971
University of Vienna and Vienna Conservatory of Music, 1970
Admissions
Alaska (Inactive)
California
District of Columbia
Courts / Agencies
US District Court for the Northern District of California
Languages
English
French
German
