Before joining the firm in 2003, Vern was the general counsel and corporate secretary of Perlegen Sciences, Inc., a start-up biotechnology company that scans the entire human genome for important therapeutic and diagnostic products. Previously, as senior vice president and general counsel, he was an early employee of Affymetrix, the biotechnology company that pioneered and developed DNA chip technology. He also had been a partner at Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Palo Alto.

During his career, Vern has authored or prosecuted more than 15 patents that have been litigated in the United States and abroad, and has overseen intellectual property lawsuits throughout the world.

Vern currently serves as a member of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Policy and Nominating Committees.

• J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law
  With Honors
• Master's degree, University of Santa Clara
• Undergraduate degree, University of Colorado, Boulder
  With Honors

• Board Member, Johns Hopkins University Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board
• Chairman of the Board, Advisory Committee, University of Colorado, School of Engineering
• Board Member, The Parkinson's Institute
• Inaugural Member, Public Advisory Committee, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Vern Norviel continued

• Selected for inclusion in the 2007 edition of The Legal 500 US
• Named to the Lawdragon 500 "New Stars, New Worlds" list, 2006
• AV Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell

• Co-author with R. Akhavan and A.R. Alemozafar, "Role of intellectual property in investment-backed personalized medicine," 7(1) Personalized Medicine 95-102, January 2010
• Brief for amici curiae Caris Diagnostics, Inc. in support of petitioners, Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw v. John J. Doll, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, On Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, No. 08-964
• Brief for amici curiae Perlegen Sciences, Inc. and Mohr, Davidow Ventures in support of respondents, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc. and Competitive Technologies, Inc., On Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, No. 04-607
• "Brief of Amicus Curiae, Biotechnology Industry Organization in Support of Plaintiffs' Motions for Summary Judgment, Triantafyllos Tafas and SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Dudas," 27(1) Biotechnology Law Report 36-43, 2008
• Co-author with P. McGarrigle, "Laws of Nature and the Business of Biotechnology," 24 Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal 275-334, 2008
• "Invalid! The Supreme Court Questions the Basis for Diagnostic Patents," Start-Up,
  February 2006
• Co-author with Anie K. Roche, "Are Method Patents Still Valuable?" Corporate Dealmaker, December 13, 2004

• White House participant, Transparency Task Force of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), August 11, 2009
• Participant, Federal Trade Commission hearings on the evolving IP marketplace, May 4-5, 2009
• "From Drug Discovery to Drug Approval: Working with the FDA," Yale University
• "Building a Life Science Enterprise in Current Market Conditions," The Johns Hopkins University
• "Real Life Case Studies Where The Due Diligence Went Terribly Wrong," 3rd National Conference on Life Sciences IP Due Diligence
• "Bio MEMS: Opportunities and Barriers," MIT Symposium
• "More Way to Market With Your BioPharma Technology," Larta Venture Forum – BioPharma
• Participant, President's Counsel on Personalized Medicine Panel
• Moderator, Algae Biomass Summit

• Bar of the District of Columbia
• State Bar of California
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office