Stephen A. Bent, a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP, is a member of the Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice and the Health Care and Nanotechnology Industry Teams. He is the founder and a former co-chair of the Life Sciences Industry Team. Mr. Bent counsels clients on intellectual property disputes and the legal issues associated with pharmaceutical and biotechnology asset valuation and management, venture capital, licensing and technology transfer, and corporate acquisitions. He is a principal in the firm’s China initiative and is active in Foley & Lardner’s Shanghai office.
Mr. Bent has developed an international reputation in biotechnology intellectual property law, with a number of publications to his credit in both scientific and legal journals. The Practical Law Company’s Cross Border Life Sciences Handbook has ranked Mr. Bent as one of the top five U.S. life sciences attorneys in the IP category annually since 2004. Since 2007, he also has been selected annually by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® for the areas of biotechnology and patent law. Mr. Bent has also been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system. In 2012, he was recognized by the Legal 500 for his work in patent prosecution and in 2013, he was selected for inclusion in the Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers® list for his work in intellectual property and health care.
A graduate of Earlham College (B.S., biology), the University of Connecticut (M.S., 1976), and the George Washington University Law School (J.D., with high honors, 1981), Mr. Bent served as technical assistant to the Honorable Phillip B. Baldwin, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, from 1981 to 1983. He served as a member of the editorial board of The Scientist.