c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Since its beginnings, stem-cell research has attracted attention from doctors, politicians and religious activists.

Now that the field is moving from theoretical musings to practical applications, you can add one more group: lawyers.

From trial lawyers duking it out over attempts to establish stem-cell research institutes in California and Missouri to patent attorneys helping New Jersey scientists protect their discoveries, the legal world is increasingly seeking a piece of the action.

With private industry and public funding dumping millions into stem-cell research, many are already speculating that the dividends for law firms could be huge.

“The future is pretty bright,” says Tom Turano, the co-chairman of the newly formed stem-cell technology practice group at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, which has offices in Newark, N.J. “We are really at the beginning of something here.”

The potential for legal work in the stem-cell field is vast, experts say.

Intellectual property lawyers help make sure discoveries are protected and in position to be developed into marketable products. Venture-capital attorneys build deals. Other lawyers are hired to lobby legislators. Immigration attorneys smooth the way for foreign scientists to work in laboratories here. And experts in insurance law fight over what therapies should be covered.

“Lawyers are vital to getting this off the lab bench,” says Ray Thek of Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, N.J., who has done stem-cell work for a doctor at Hackensack University Medical Center.

But diving into the specialized field is no small investment, says Joel Henning, a senior vice president of Hildebrandt International, a legal consulting company. That could keep many small firms and even some big ones out of the field.

“At this time, it is pretty exotic,” says Henning, who works in the consultancy’s Chicago office. “It is limited in the number of clients that are going to be into it. (But) more firms will get interested as time goes on.”

The Kirkpatrick firm is one that got interested _ fast. It recently created a nine-lawyer group out of its existing staff in an effort to make sure a cross-section of lawyers were keeping up to speed on developments in the field.

“The science moves much faster than the law,” says Turano, who recently helped patent a mutated gene that will eventually help scientists create an affordable diagnostic test to detect a rare connective tissue disease.

“Sometimes, by the time the law gets around to (an issue), nobody cares about it,” he said. “The group was formed specifically for the purpose of trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

New Jersey is already a hot spot for stem-cell research. In December, it became the first state in the country to award public money for research with human embryonic stem cells when it handed out $5 million to 17 scientists.

The state Legislature recently moved forward with plans to invest up to $250 million in public funding to establish the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick and other possible facilities. Gov. Jon Corzine campaigned on and has continued to be a vocal supporter of the idea.

“We have an advantage in our region because of the leadership position the state of New Jersey has chosen to take,” says Thek, whose firm helped prepare a pending patent application for a professor who is working on the use of stem cells to encourage the cell to turn into a more specialized cell such as bone or cartilage.

“That is the stake New Jersey has put in the ground for this region,” Thek says.

Lawyers at Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione’s government affairs outpost in Trenton are involved in a different way: The firm is focused not on the science, but on the activists in the state capital who want to see the proposed legislation adopted.

“We’re really looking at this from the perspective of getting the funding done first,” says David Pascrell, chair of Gibbons’ government affairs group. Once the funding is in place, then the firm will consider what should be done to attract other stem-cell work.

Pascrell has been working with people like George Greatrex of the South Jersey chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, who has testified in front of budget committees for funding.

“Legal expertise is just as important in interpreting the laws as it is in creating and crafting laws,” says Greatrex, who is also a co-founder of the New Jersey Citizens’ Coalition for Cures, a group of scientists, patient advocacy groups and citizens pushing to see the stem-cell institute established.

KRE/JL END COSCARELLI

(Kate Coscarelli writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)