Alan Mendelson has been a partner in the Silicon Valley office since May 2000 and is the Co-chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies Practice and Life Sciences Industry Groups.
Mr. Mendelson’s practice is primarily targeted toward the representation of emerging and public growth companies, with strong emphasis on companies in the life sciences industry. He has handled and supervised a variety of major business transactions, including venture capital financings, private placements and public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic collaborations and commercial transactions.
From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Mendelson served as President of the Cal Alumni Association. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California, the Board of Trustees of The Scripps Research Institute, the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Foundation and the Board of Advisors for the UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry. He was also recently appointed to the Inaugural Steering Committee for The Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Mendelson served on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and is currently a member of the BayBio Board of Directors. He serves as the corporate secretary for many public and private companies.
Previously, Mr. Mendelson served as the President of the National Kidney Foundation of Northern California, Inc. and as a member of the Board of Overseers Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School. He currently serves as a member of the Major Gifts Council for the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health and as a member of the Board of the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Since 1993, Mr. Mendelson has been listed in editions of The Best Lawyers in America and IPO Vital Signs. In August 2011, Mr. Mendelson was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 biotech attorneys in California. Mr. Mendelson was also recognized as one of America’s 100 most influential lawyers in the 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2006 editions of the National Law Journal. In addition, he is listed as one of the World’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Chambers Global and Chambers US.
In March 2010, Mr. Mendelson was honored at the annual Salute to Excellence dinner sponsored by the American Liver Foundation for those who have made an outstanding contribution to biotechnology and medical innovation. In 2012, the Cal Alumni Association recognized him for his “Excellence in Service” to UC Berkeley.
As counsel to Amgen from its inception in 1980 through 2006, Mr. Mendelson handled numerous transactions, including its initial public offering in 1983; its joint venture with Kirin; a number of major research and development partnerships; its European convertible debt deal; and its co-promotion agreement for Europe with F. Hoffman-La Roche. From April of 1990 through April of 1991, he served as Amgen’s Secretary and Acting General Counsel.
Mr. Mendelson currently serves as principal outside counsel to numerous emerging and public companies including:
- Coherus BioSciences, Inc.
- Corcept Therapeutics, Inc.
- Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
- Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
- OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Prothena Biosciences, Inc.
- Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.
- Singulex, Inc.
- TiVo, Inc.
- Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Ulthera, Inc.
In the public offering arena, Mr. Mendelson has been counsel to a number of investment banks in offerings for emerging growth companies, including Citibank, CSFB, DeutschBank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies & Co., Leerink Swan and Morgan Stanley. As company counsel he has handled public offerings for such notable companies as Amgen, Axys Pharmaceuticals, Aviron, Complete Genomics, Corcept Therapeutics, CV Therapeutics, Geron Corporation, Intuitive Surgical, InterMune, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Mellanox Technologies, Novacea, Pharmacyclics, Qualcomm, Renovis, Sarepta Therapeutics, TiVo and Transcept Pharmaceuticals.