Ryan Beckstrom
Ryan Beckstrom graduated from the College of Law in 2013 and served for a year as a judicial clerk to Judge Gregory Orme on the Utah Court of Appeals. Since that time, Beckstrom has joined the law firm Kirton McConkie as an associate. His practice is in general litigation and involves different areas of the law. As a fellow with the Center, Beckstrom remarks his experience served him particularly well in litigating a number of patent and intellectual property disputes involving medical devices and patents. More generally, he feels that the intensive research, writing, and editing experience he gained as a fellow was a great advantage throughout his clerkship and into his litigation career. He comments, “I can trace many of the skills that I use on a day-to-day basis to my time as a fellow for the Center for Law and Biomedical Science.” Beckstrom is affiliated with the Salt Lake County Bar Association, Utah State Bar, Litigation and Appellate practice sections, and Young Lawyers.
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown joined Medtronic’s cardiovascular clinical trials team upon graduation from the College of Law, where she managed the cGMP documentation compliance for their global study centers. She remarks that it was extraordinarily rewarding to work with teams of scientists and physicians studying how their devices could be used to treat complex conditions like pulmonary arterial hypertension and heart failure.
Brown now works for Fairview Health Services managing pharmacy regulatory compliance for the University of Minnesota and their pharmacies located across Minnesota. Her current focus with Fairview is overseeing operational changes to their sterile compounding, including the creation of Minnesota’s first outsourcing facility compounding operation. It is fast paced work, which allows her to use advocacy skills to organize interdisciplinary comments to the Food and Drug Administration’s guidances related to sterile compounding. She also leads their USP <800> Hazardous Drug Handling in the Healthcare Setting steering committee, as they improve their procedures and oversight to ensure that personnel are protected when handling hazardous drugs. Brown is a member of the American Society of Pharmacy Law and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Brown remarks that her experience as a Biolaw fellow introduced her to an interdisciplinary approach to health law, that combines legal advocacy and regulatory interpretation with the practice of medicine and healthcare business operation. She relied on comments to federal regulations submitted by healthcare professionals and organizations when she did research as a fellow, and now she has the opportunity to draft and organize those comments herself.
Terrece Pearman
Upon graduation from the College of Law in 2011, Terrece Pearman accepted a position as an associate in the Salt Lake City office of Stoel Rives, a regional law firm. There, she was a member of the intellectual property group and focused on prosecuting patents in the life sciences area. This position provided training in patent prosecution while making good use of her background in pharmacology and biotechnology. Later, Pearman opened her own solo practice, ATP Technology Law, through which she continues to offer patent and trademark prosecution services. While she still works with established companies, as a smaller firm with lower overhead, she is able to accommodate start-up companies and enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit they possess. In addition to practicing through ATP Technology Law, she works as a counsel attorney with Kimball Legal, a Utah health law firm. Kimball Legal provides services to companies in areas that include life sciences, health care, medical devices, and cosmetics. By working with Kimball Legal, she is part of a team that provides all or most of the client’s legal needs from one source. Pearman has participated with organizations such as the intellectual property section and the solo practitioner’s section of the Utah bar, Young Lawyers, Young Women Lawyers, and BioUtah.