Nicole Picard is Associate General Counsel at Brown University. Her practice primarily supports the research enterprise at Brown University. She advises on federal and state regulatory matters, sponsored research, research integrity, centers and institutes, export controls, lab safety, and medicine and health affairs. Nicole also provides counsel on intellectual property, conflicts of interest, and corporate governance issues.
Prior to Brown, Nicole worked in the government contracts practice of a large international law firm in Washington, D.C. where she advised clients on a broad range of complex regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters. She clerked for the U.S Court of Federal Claims and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nicole has a J.D., summa cum laude, from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and a B.A., cum laude, from Providence College. Nicole serves as an adjunct professor at Providence College, where she teaches legal writing.
Steve Sencer is Counsel at Ropes & Gray LLP. He brings more than three decades of experience to his work counseling research universities and academic medical centers on legal, regulatory and business issues related to higher education, academic medicine, federally funded research and innovation. A former chief legal officer of Emory University and its affiliated health system, as well as a former litigator and prosecutor, Steve has a firsthand understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing clients.
Steve works closely with clients to navigate complicated legal issues involving scientific research. Utilizing his experience as a former prosecutor, Steve conducts internal investigations and advises on government inquiries related to research misconduct, undue foreign influence, and reporting of foreign gifts and contracts. Clients appreciate Steve’s ability to guide them through sensitive and confidential situations, honed over many years of advising leadership and governing boards.
Research universities and academic medical centers also turn to Steve for guidance on how to realize the value of their scientists’ inventions while managing legal and reputational risks. He has extensive knowledge of alternative innovation models, and regularly counsels clients on licensing of university technologies, structuring internal investments into early-stage opportunities, review of intellectual property policies and Bayh-Dole Act compliance. While at Emory, Steve was instrumental in the creation of Emory Innovations, Inc., and its wholly controlled drug development company, DRIVE, LLC, as well as the successful licensing of molnupiravir, a COVID-19 oral therapy.
Steve also advises clients on the complex and nuanced relationship between schools of medicine and health systems. With his understanding of the legal and regulatory environment and academic medical center culture, Steve helps develop strategies that are legally sound and take into account an institution’s financial, reputational and stakeholder needs.
Steve, who joined Ropes & Gray in 2023, is well known in the higher education legal community. He has served as chair of the board of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, chair of the Legal Services Review Panel of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and a member of the General Counsel Committee of the American Association of Universities.