Meet the Team – S.J. Quinney College of Law

Jorge L. Contreras

Jorge L. Contreras teaches in the areas of intellectual property law, property law and genetics and the law. He has recently been named one of the University of Utah's Presidential Scholars, he won the 2018-19 Faculty Scholarship Award from the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the University's Distinguished Research Award in 2020. Professor Contreras has previously served on the law faculties of American University Washington College of Law and Washington University in St. Louis, and was a partner at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he practiced transactional and intellectual property law in Boston, London and Washington DC. Professor Contreras’s current research focuses, among other things, on the development of technical standards and the use and dissemination of data generated by large-scale scientific research projects. He has edited six books and published more than 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. His published work has appeared in scientific, legal and policy journals including Science, Nature, NYU Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, Florida State Law Review, American University Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Antitrust Law Journal, and Utah Law Review. He has been quoted by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Korea Times and has been featured on NPR, PRI and BBC radio shows and a range of podcasts and online news programs. Professor Contreras serves Co-Chair of the Interdisciplinary Division of the ABA’s Section of Science & Technology Law and a member of the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute. He has served as Co-Chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Intellectual Property Management in Standard-Setting Processes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils, the Advisory Council of NIH's National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS), the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Board, the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, and the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Utah Genome Project. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School (JD) and Rice University (BA, BSEE) and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.

801-587-5471
jorge.contreras@law.utah.edu

Kenneth Gregory Chahine

Adjunct Professor
College Of Law
Entrepreneurship

Kenneth Gregory Chahine

Adjunct Professor
College Of Law
Entrepreneurship

Professor Chahine teaches New Ventures, a first of its kind course that combines various aspects of legal and business principles in real-world settings. Students experience the legal and business aspects involved in launching a technology-based venture through a combination of classroom instruction and placement in one of three external clinics: the Technology Commercialization Office, the Lassonde Entrepreneurial Center, or the University Venture Fund. Topics include confidentiality agreements, technology valuation, due diligence, material transfer agreements, venture financing instruments, and complex technology licenses. Professor Chahine is a member of the Law and Biosciences Project, an interdisciplinary project focusing on cutting edge issues at the intersection of law and rapidly emerging biosciences. The team is currently focused on the complex legal issues (informed consent, privacy, ownership, etc.) raised by large databases that combine a patient's family history, biological specimens, genetic information, and medical records to develop the next generation of prognostic and diagnostic medical tools. Professor Chahine consults with early-stage bioscience companies. At these companies, Professor Chahine works closely with the founders, board of directors, and management to implement a comprehensive business strategy, including marketing, regulatory, intellectual property, and fundraising. Previously, Professor Chahine was President and Chief Executive Officer of Avigen, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company in the San Francisco Bay area developing drugs for chronic neurological disorders where he still serves on the Board of Directors. Professor Chahine served as Avigen's Chief Operating Officer as well as Vice President of Business Development and Intellectual Property. Prior to joining Avigen, he worked at a patent law firm specializing in biotechnology and chemical patents. Professor Chahine also worked as a research scientist at Pfizer (formerly Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals) and the University of Utah Department of Human Genetics. During his career, Professor Chahine has successful raised over $200M in capital; has completed numerous deals with large pharmaceutical companies (including Bayer AG, Baxter Healthcare, and Genzyme) totaling several hundred million dollars; and received over 70 US and International patents.

801-585-9318
chahinek@law.utah.edu

David B Dellenbach

Adjunct Professor
College Of Law
Trademark

Leslie Francis

Dist. Alfred C. Emery Prof. of Law, Dist. Prof. of Philosophy, Director, LABS
Health Law

Ronnell Andersen Jones

Lee E. Teitelbaum Professor of Law
College Of Law
Media Law

Ronnell Andersen Jones

Lee E. Teitelbaum Professor of Law
College Of Law
Media Law

Professor RonNell Andersen Jones is an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project and the Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Professor Jones is a First Amendment scholar who teaches, researches and writes on legal issues affecting the press and on the intersection between media and the courts, with a particular emphasis on the United States Supreme Court. Her scholarship addresses issues of press access and transparency and the role of the press as a check on government. She is also a widely cited national expert on reporter’s privilege and newsgathering rights and a regular speaker on emerging areas of social media law. Her scholarly work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including Northwestern Law Review, Michigan Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, and the Harvard Law Review Forum. She is also a regular public commentator on press freedom issues. Her op-eds have been published in several major news outlets, including CNN and The New York Times, and her research has been quoted in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times and other national publications. Professor Jones graduated first in her law school class and clerked for the Honorable William A. Fletcher on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court. Prior to entering academia, she was an attorney in the Issues & Appeals section of Jones Day, where her work focused on Supreme Court litigation and included major constitutional cases. An award-winning teacher, Professor Jones has been recognized for her classroom innovations and personal mentoring. Before joining the faculty at the University of Utah, Professor Jones was Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Research at Brigham Young University, where she was twice named Professor of the Year. Before that, she was a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Arizona, where she team-taught an annual course about the United States Supreme Court with Justice O’Connor.

801-587-8756
ronnell.andersen.jones@law.utah.edu