Choate Elects Four to Partnership for 2025

Four Choate attorneys – Xiaodong Li, Bryana T. McGillycuddy, Michael A. Shinall, and Sean M. Small - have been elected to partnership of the firm, effective January 1, 2025.

• Xiaodong Li, PhD is a member of the Intellectual Property Group, providing biotech, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with global IP strategy to protect technologies and products at different development and commercial stages. He also assists technology and investor clients in due diligence, including monitoring and analysis of complex patent portfolios and freedom-to-operate and invalidity analysis and strategy. Xiaodong represents many clients in their strategic business transactions. He advises life sciences clients on complex, high-value development and commercialization collaborations during both negotiation and implementation stages. With extensive research experiences in both organic chemistry and molecular biology from Harvard, he works with many clients in small molecule pharmaceuticals, peptide therapeutics, nucleic acid therapeutics including antisense, editing, RNAi and splicing modulation, antibody-drug conjugates, and bio-based materials and green chemistry.
• Bryana T. McGillycuddy is a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation and the Business and Financial Litigation Groups, counseling clients across a wide range of industries including biotech, pharmaceutical, life sciences, technology, and financial services. Bryana is a trial lawyer skilled at navigating high stakes patent and trade secrets litigation and complex business disputes in federal and state courts, as well as in contentious proceedings before the PTAB. 
• Michael A. Shinall is a member of the Intellectual Property Group, counseling pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and investors on a variety of IP and patent matters. With industry and research experience in chemistry and pharmaceuticals, he develops global patent portfolio management strategies to protect clients’ critical assets at each stage of the business and regulatory cycle, with a particular specialty in the areas of small molecule therapeutics, formulations, and delivery technologies. Michael also works with investors and life science companies to assess potential acquisitions or investments through IP due diligence and landscape analyses and to identify IP issues that may impact valuation when looking to invest in or acquire a target company or technology.
• Sean M. Small is a member of the Private Equity and M&A Group, representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a wide range of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, capital raising, and dispositions. He also advises institutional investors and management teams in negotiating and structuring leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations. Additionally, Sean provides counsel on general corporate matters and governance issues for public and private companies.