Vern Norviel

Vern Norviel is a special advisor to ATP. A partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati and a senior practitioner in the firm’s patents and innovations counseling practice, he has three decades of experience formulating successful strategies for life science companies and helping them develop IP programs. Before joining Wilson Sonsini in 2003, Vern was the general counsel and corporate secretary of Perlegen Sciences, a biotechnology company that scans the entire human genome for important therapeutic and diagnostic products. Previously, as senior vice president and general counsel, he was an early employee of Affymetrix, the biotechnology company that pioneered and developed DNA chip technology. He also has been a partner at Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Palo Alto. Vern previously served as a member of Wilson Sonsini's board of directors and currently serves on the board of the Wilson Sonsini Foundation. He is a member of the Business Advisory Board at Scripps Research, a lecturer in biotechnology law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and an associated scholar at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Vern earned a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado in Boulder, an MS in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University, and a JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law.