Global law firm Goodwin today announced the launch of Goodwin Labs, a new initiative aimed at supporting emerging companies within the life sciences sector. Goodwin Labs provides legal services and complimentary educational content to early-stage life sciences companies through partnerships with startup incubators and accelerators. The initiative launched its first partnership with Petri, a biology and engineering startup accelerator that focuses on formation-stage innovators.
Through the partnership with Petri, Goodwin lawyers led by Stuart Cable, Jacqueline Mercier, Robert Crawford and William Collins will provide Petri’s entrepreneurs with the legal content and advisory services these startups need to get off the ground and gain commercial traction. Goodwin Labs will provide programming at Petri’s accelerator space in the form of office hours, presentations and educational workshops geared to help the entrepreneurs tackle the issues most critical to early-stage companies, such as corporate formation, raising seed capital, intellectual property strategy and protection, personnel management, licensing and collaborations, and corporate governance considerations.
“The launch of Goodwin Labs is another testament to Goodwin’s position at the intersection of innovation and capital,” said Stuart Cable, vice chairman and global chair of M&A at Goodwin. “The initiative demonstrates our dedication to the success of emerging companies and their investors through all phases of growth, from inception and financing to expansion and liquidity. We are thrilled to work with Petri’s team of dynamic life sciences and venture capital leaders to develop their companies at the frontier of biology and engineering.”
“Building solid legal foundations is critical for any young company,” said Brian Baynes, co-founder of Petri. “By partnering with Goodwin Labs, Petri teams will have counsel from a deeply experienced team of attorneys on the many challenges that face biology startups.”
"Goodwin has been a tremendous partner to Ginkgo as we've grown,” said Reshma Shetty, co-founder of Petri and biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks. “I'm thrilled that they are offering the same expertise to Petri founders just beginning their startup journey."
Goodwin Labs complements the firm’s Founders WorkbenchSM, a free, online resource that helps entrepreneurs navigate many of the legal and organizational challenges commonly faced by startups and emerging companies.
Goodwin’s Life Sciences practice represents leading public and private life sciences companies and investors across their entire life cycles – including financings, capital market transactions, mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and licensing, intellectual property and regulatory matters. Goodwin has been named life sciences “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360, “ Biotech Firm of the Year” by U.S. News and World Report - Best Lawyers for five years, and “IP Law Firm of the Year” and “Life Cycle Firm of the Year” by LMGLife Sciences.
About Petri
Petri is a Boston-based startup accelerator dedicated to developing companies at the frontier of biology and engineering, co-created with industry stars including Brian Baynes (serial entrepreneur and investor), Reshma Shetty (Ginkgo Bioworks), Emily Leproust (Twist Bioscience), Stan Lapidus (Exact Sciences, Cytyc), Daphne Koller (Insitro), Alec Nielsen (Asimov), Andy Beck (PathAI), JP Mangeolle (Danaher, Sciex, Phenomenex), Bernhard van Lengerich (General Mills, Beyond Meat), and leading researchers Chris Voigt, Pam Silver, and George Church.
Petri provides a 12-month development program, $250k+ in funding, and access to an office, lab, and a wide array of resources for company development. See more coverage about Petri on TechCrunch, Endpoints News, VentureBeat, and Forbes.