Articles

Latest SCOTUS Decision a Setback for Native Tribes and Their Rights

In a setback to Tribal nations, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled 5-4 that the general trust obligation to Navajo Nation does not require the federal government to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajo reservation. Partner Ted Griswold and legal intern Ariel Jones have the details, and argue the decision disregards the principles of federal Indian law and misunderstands water law.

ICWA Affirmed by SCOTUS, But Indian Country Trepidation Remains

The U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 decision affirming the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in Haaland v. Brackeen was a welcome support of tribal sovereignty, but some Tribal attorneys remain apprehensive for several reasons, as Partner Ted Griswold and legal intern Molly Gunther explain in a timely new article.

News

Partner Joins Procopio’s Award-Winning Labor and Employment Practice in San Diego

Procopio’s award-winning Labor and Employment Law practice has added a new Partner. Lindsay David is a seasoned litigator who focuses on wage and hour class action litigation, collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and representative wage and hour litigation under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) from case inception through appeal. She is based in Procopio’s Del Mar Heights, California, office.

Lindsay is an award-winning attorney, having been recognized by Super Lawyers® as a Rising Star since 2020 in multiple categories, namely Class Action/Mass Torts: Defense, Employment Litigation: Defense, and Employment & Labor: Employer. She represents companies from startups to Fortune 500 companies in all types of state and federal employment litigation. Lindsay is admitted in California and in multiple federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, and three California U.S. District Courts, the Central, Northern and Southern districts. She earned a BA in Linguistics from University of California Santa Barbara and her JD from California Western School of Law, where she won the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Federal Civil Procedure.

Leading Biosimulation Provider Acquires Drug Development Modeling and Simulation Company

Congratulations to client and leading biosimulation provider Simulations Plus on its acquisition of modeling and simulation company Immunetrics, Inc., which focuses on accelerating drug development in oncology, immunology, and autoimmune diseases. Immunetrics shareholders will be paid at closing $15.5 million, including a $1.8 million hold-back, plus two future earn-out payments in the aggregate amount of up to $8 million based on the revenue performance of Immunetrics through December 31, 2024.

Partner Dennis Doucette has represented Simulations Plus (NASDAQ: SLP) for more than 25 years and led this transaction, with assistance from Partner and Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Joint Ventures co-leader Jason Femrite. Other corporate and tax attorneys who worked on the deal included Helen Goldstein, Gabriela Turner, Matthew Short, Caitlin Murphey, David Boatwright, John Miles and Eric Swenson.

Fractional Ownership Pioneer Raises Capital to Expand Beyond Horse Racing

Kudos to client and groundbreaking fractional ownership innovator Experiential Squared on raising $7 million in capital to expand its micro-share investment platform. Expansion beyond race horsing (its innovative MyRacehorse operation) is now possible with the addition of several investors led by 1/ST (North America’s dominant thoroughbred racing and gaming company) through its 1/ST RACING & GAMING and 1/ST TECHNOLOGY business divisions.

Experiential Squared’s corporate and financing legal services are provided by Partner and Emerging Growth & Venture Capital leader Roger Rappoport and its securities work by Partner and Capital Markets & Securities leader Christopher Tinen. 

Awards

Procopio IP Practice and 3 Partners Recognized in the 2023 IAM Patent 1000

Procopio’s award-winning intellectual property practice and three of its Partners were named to the 2023 Patent 1000 list by IAM, a leading source of worldwide news, analysis and data on the management of intellectual property. The three recognized attorneys—Noel Gillespie, Jeff Morton and Xiaofan “Frank” Yang—all bring life sciences and medtech clients distinctive backgrounds in providing a wide range of legal services.

Here's what IAM had to say:

"Highly valued for its A-to-Z patent offering, Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch enters the IAM Patent 1000 for the first time this year. Accessible and hands on, its practitioners ensure a top-notch and responsive service at a reasonable price. Noel Gillespie is quick to understand the nuances of technology and designs cohesive and comprehensive patent applications that prove instrumental in the development of patent portfolios. Super-effective patent strategist and wise counsellor Frank Yang protects his clients’ intellectual assets to the hilt and seeks opportunities to put them to business use. Yang has recently been assisting life sciences company Otonomy to obtain crucial patents covering its lead product candidates and clinical programmes in the United States and abroad. Known for his high-level strategic work, Jeffrey Morton is a holistic thinker with abundant experience in creating and managing valuable portfolios for life sciences patrons."

Silicon Valley Litigator Named A Super Lawyer for Ninth Straight Year

Partner Mindy Morton has been named to the 2023 Northern California Super Lawyers® list, her ninth straight year achieving this recognition. Only 5% of lawyers practicing in California are named Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters. Mindy is one of 20 Procopio attorneys recognized by Super Lawyers in 2023 in Silicon Valley, San Diego, Orange County and Scottsdale. Based in Procopio’s Silicon Valley office, Mindy focuses her practice on high-stakes litigation in the areas of healthcare, trade secrets, technology and internet law. She leads Procopio’s Health Care practice as well as its Trade Secrets practice. Mindy also leads Procopio’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and is proud of the firm achieving Mansfield Rule Certified Plus status two years running. Mindy has long held a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent Rating and has several other award recognitions.

Real Estate Partner Named a Woman of Influence in the Law for Third Straight Year

For the third straight year, Partner Sara Neva has been named to the San Diego Business Journal Women of Influence in Law list. This is the latest of many accolades for Sara, who counsels clients on real estate, finance and general business transactions. For the last four years Sara has been named a Super Lawyers® Rising Star in Real Estate Law. Other San Diego Business Journal recognitions include being named a 2020 Next Top Business Leader under 40, a 2019 Leaders in Law Rising Star, a 2021 Business Woman of the Year finalist, and a 2020 Leaders in Law finalist. SD Metro magazine named Sara a 2021 40 Under 40 and a 2020 Top Attorney. Sara’s practice involves real estate property purchase and sale, commercial leases and easements, joint venture formation and other equity investments, financing, land use and entitlements.

Corporate Attorney Named A 2023 SDBJ Top 50 Leader of Influence LGBTQ+ 

Capital Markets and Securities attorney Jennifer Trowbridge has been recognized by the San Diego Business Journal on its Top 50 Leaders of Influence LGBTQ+ list. This list of influential San Diegans was compiled by the magazine in conjunction with the San Diego Equality Business Association and includes many corporate and nonprofit leaders. Jennifer focuses on a wide array of corporate law, including securities law, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, and Exchange Act reporting and compliance. For the last two years, Jennifer has been recognized as a Super Lawyers® Rising Star for Securities & Corporate Finance. She has been honored five times by SD Metro magazine, including as a Top Attorney in 2023 and a Woman of Influence in 2021. This is her sixth recognition by the San Diego Business Journal, including being named a Woman of Influence in the Law in 2021.

2 Procopio Partners Recognized as WIPR Intellectual Property Leaders

Two Procopio Partners—Noel Gillespie and Jeff Morton—have been named to the 2023 World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) IP Leaders list. WIPR conducts a months-long nomination process seeking input from 12,000 IP professionals and performs vetting on every nominated lawyer. Judges examine practice history, industry expertise and notable matters, as well as any additional activities, such as writing and teaching responsibilities. Noel and Jeff provide a wide array of IP legal services to life sciences and medtech clients in the U.S. and around the world. Noel advises emerging and later-stage clients on strategic patent portfolio development and implementation to protect their technology and achieve their business objectives, the most important objectives being market share and premium pricing. Jeff, a PhD immunologist, leads Procopio’s Life Sciences practice and co-leads its Licensing and Technology Transactions practice. He provides strategic intellectual property advice and related transactional support  or emerging and mature companies in a wide variety of industries, with a particular focus on life sciences and medical technologies.

Social Media

Please welcome the newest member of our Real Estate Strategic Joint Ventures team, Emily Marsh! She's a transactional attorney and experienced litigator focused on real estate and financial services. Her transactional services include loan transactions, loan and asset purchases, and commercial real estate transactions. She has also represented banks, mortgage lenders, land owners and title insurance companies in all phases of litigation.

Looking to take a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court? Three of our attorneys recently were sworn in to the SCOTUS Bar at the High Court in Washington, D.C. Kudos to Pedro E. Corona de la Fuente, Raul Villarreal Garza and John Miles!

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently provided some helpful reminders about pursuing and opposing awards of attorney fees in patent litigation, IP Litigation Partner Jeremy Edwards explains in a recent Law360 article. The OneSubsea IP UK Ltd. v. FMC Technologies Inc. decision features some twists and turns and is instructive in several ways.

It is more crucial than ever to update old FTO techniques given the complex relationship between mRNA technology and patent litigation, Procopio IP Life Sciences Partner Jeff Morton explains in an IAM article co-written with RMMS Counsel Thomas Ehrich. (subscription required).

Attendees at our seminar on privacy law with Elaine Harwell June 8 learned practical approaches to meeting their regulatory privacy obligations, protecting themselves from challenging litigation, and developing a flexible privacy program. Elaine, our Privacy & Cybersecurity group leader, presented with Nick Ginger of City National Bank. We served as co-host with ACC San Diego.

We were honored to sponsor this CEO Circle Town Hall by Association for Corporate Growth - ACG San Diego that included our M&A and Joint Ventures co-leader Paul Johnson!

Child privacy laws were the focus of a June 12 panel discussion featuring Partner Mindy Morton as part of the Stanford Law School's 2023 Digital Economy Best Practices conference held at Stanford's Palo Alto campus. Topics included protecting children from spam, scams and online predators; laws in California and elsewhere mandating child protection; unintended consequences that flow from good intentions; increasing emphasis on protecting teens; and international vs. U.S. perspectives on child protection.

As we mark another July 4th with barbecues and fireworks, it’s worth asking: What is the dream of freedom? Perhaps its beauty is its variability based on the dreamer. It’s the recent immigrant free to build a better future for his children. It’s the teenage girl free to live an authentic life absent judgment or hatred. It’s all of us choosing to embrace a truly free society supportive of opportunities for all, regardless of ethnic, religious or gender identity. We the people. Together.

Where will you find Procopio’s attorneys and staff on June 19th? Not at our seven U.S. offices. Procopio recognizes Juneteenth as a firm holiday, allowing us time to reflect on our nation’s ongoing pursuit of true racial justice. We recognize the challenges faced by Black Americans, as well as their critical contributions to society. We also take seriously our obligations to each other and the communities in which we serve to uphold our own high standards for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. That commitment is reflected in our repeated high DEI rankings by AmLaw and Law360 and our Mansfield Rule Plus certification. Our clients always come first, and that doesn’t change when we mark a historic milestone by closing our doors for a day. Quite the opposite. Our action reflects our understanding of the importance of a raised consciousness and diverse viewpoints in problem-solving for our clients.

Let's Work Together.