Nicholas (“Nick”) Prairie is an associate in the Litigation Department, and a member of the Life Sciences Patent practice. He works with life science and pharmaceutical clients of all sizes and counsels through the life cycle of U.S. and foreign patent assets.

Nick is experienced at conducting freedom-to-operate and patentability analyses to identify opportunities in crowded therapeutic fields, as well as developing and implementing prosecution strategies to support commercial efforts. He has prepared non-infringement and invalidity opinions, evaluated litigation risk, and developed potential litigation strategies. He has conducted infringement analyses and has prepared complaints for federal district courts and the International Trade Commission. Nick is also heavily involved in supporting opposition practice in Europe, on the sides of both Opponents and Patentees.

Nick’s technical expertise is diverse. While trained as a synthetic organic chemist, he works with an array of therapeutics in the chemistry space, including small molecules, macrolides, and multifunctional molecules, as well as therapeutics in the biotechnology space including antibodies, enzyme replacement therapies, engineered cells, nucleic acid-based therapies, and gene editing technologies. Prior to joining Proskauer, Nick was an associate at another Boston firm where he assisted in patent prosecution and district court litigation.

Before law school, he worked for about eight years as a chemist where he designed and synthesized a variety of pharmaceutically interesting compounds including; small molecules, peptides, peptide-drug conjugates, proteins, and protein-polymer conjugates, and is an inventor on several patents/patent applications. As a graduate student his research focused on natural product synthesis. In addition to staying up to date on the ever-shifting patent case law, Nick enjoys spending time with his dog and staying active.