Mike O’Shaughnessy

General Counsel

“Collaboration is always the best answer.”

Mike O'Shaughnessy always wanted to make a difference in the lives of patients suffering from disease or disability.  While earning a BS in Microbiology at Miami University of Ohio he planned to attend medical school and become an infectious disease doctor. To enhance his academic experience, he interned at Proctor & Gamble, where he learned how businesses conduct research and develop products to improve people's lives, and concluded that he could help people in a distinctive way. He enrolled in Georgetown University Law School and, upon graduating, joined Finnegan, the world’s largest intellectual property law firm. There, as a partner and patent attorney, he gained skills to help medical device and pharmaceutical companies acquire, develop, and protect life-saving technologies for global patient populations.

After decades of fighting with other leading medical device and pharmaceutical companies, he decided to shift towards a more collaborative transactional practice helping companies license new and innovative technologies that could be developed and commercialized for the benefit of the companies, and more importantly, the patients.  By focusing on the collaborative element of the law, Mike found his sweet spot handling deals that brought people together for the benefit of bringing better technology to patients in need.  He joined the partnership of some of the world’s leading general practice firms (like McDermott) and helped small companies exit technology to larger partners, who could bring innovative technologies to patients.

Mike went on to become an adjunct professor at of law at George Washington University Law School and George Mason University Law School, where he taught courses on intellectual property licensing and strategies.  Mike’s teaching strategy focused on promoting the idea that collaboration can produce the best innovation and the best means of bringing this innovation to real-world patients.

Mike has personally observed that some of the most valuable and impactful medical technologies in history were once overlooked, ignored, and left on the shelf at universities or research institutions.  Yet these unappreciated and overlooked technologies often have the greatest potential to help people live better lives.  For example, the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)--developed by Drs. Michel Mirowski and Morton Mower at Johns Hopkins University--was once considered “barbaric” and unworthy of development.  Fortunately, through a diligent process of evaluation and scrutiny, these technologies can be found and brought to market through collaboration with the right partner.   Accordingly, Mike wholeheartedly believes in the mission of Waterston Capital, and believes Waterston serves a critical and unmet need to find those innovations and get them out of academia and into reality.  The technologies identified and brought to reality by Waterston (in collaboration with industry partners) will no doubt substantially impact or even save the lives of your parents, your children, or yourself.

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Want to know more about Mike's extensive background? Look no further:

  • General Counsel, CaaMTech

  • Partner and Patent Attorney, Finnegan, Washington, DC

Managed and developed some of the most valuable patent portfolios for the world’s largest medical and health-related companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, AbbVie, and Philips Healthcare. Critically evaluated intellectual property and developed strategies to best protect and foster innovation.

  • Partner and Patent Attorney, McDermott Will & Emery, Washington, DC

Collaborated with corporate, FDA regulatory, and health care practitioners to advise clients from a more wholistic approach, including cardiac rhythm management devices for Boston Scientific, non-invasive surgical devices for Philips Healthcare, and immunotherapy drugs for Amgen and AbbVie.

  • Co-chair, Baker Botts' Life Sciences IP Litigation Group, Washington, DC

  • Shareholder, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Alexandria, VA

  • IP Litigation Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP, Atlanta, GA

  • Adjunct Professor, George Mason University Law School, Arlington, VA’

  • Author
    Authored award-wining articles on intellectual property enforcement and co-authored a chapter on licensing/settlement in a textbook entitled “ANDA Litigation: Strategies and Tactics for Pharmaceutical Patent Litigators.”

  • Assistant Professor, George Washington University, Washington, DC

  • Faculty,  Patent Resources Group

  • Board of Directors, Safe Sport Chair, Potomac Valley Swimming