Negotiation Skills - Virtual Course

September 22 - 23, 2025

September 22 - 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EASTERN

September 23 - 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EASTERN

Please note: We do not provide recordings of our professional development courses - attendance is expected.

CLP Training

• Domain 4

NEGOTIATION 301

Level: Advanced - More experience required, typically > 3 years.

Description:

This course builds on concepts introduced in our IP Negotiation Basics course, bringing your awareness and skills to the next level. This level goes deeper into tactics used and abused, and how to leverage interests through effective communication to drive mutually agreeable positions. Understanding these nuances is part and parcel of the art of negotiating effective, win-win license deals. Take your next step in your journey to becoming a master negotiator.

Modules:

• Interests and Positions
• Power and Leverage
• People and Teams
• Negotiating Tactics
• Dealing with Uncertainty
• Positive Roadmap to Negotiating
  

You will learn the following:

• To align both parties’ interests and positions to reach a win-win
• What it means to negotiate in good faith
• How to spot and deal with tactical plays and bad faith negotiators
• How to use leverage to offset power differentials
• How to leverage communication styles to build situational awareness

Recommended LES courses to take in advance or equivalent experience:

• Negotiation 201: IP Negotiation Basics
• Licensing 203: Due Diligence
• Licensing 201: Mechanics of a License

Recommended LES courses to take after:

• Licensing 202: Strengthening Your License - The Sequel to Mechanics of a License
• Valuation 201: Foundations in IP Valuation
• General 201: LES CLP Exam Review

Course Creators & Contributors:

Thank you to our course chair, past course chairs and content contributors who have developed and improved over time including:

• Gillian M. Fenton, Esq., CLP, Course Co-Chair
• Samuel Mercer, Course Co-Chair
• Jennifer R. Gottwald, Ph.D., CLP
• Chuck Neuenschwander, CLP
• Mark D. Shelley II, Ph.D.
• Karen Temple, Ph.D.
• Jeffrey S. Whittle, CLP

Pricing

Member Rate - $299.00
Non-Member Rate - $399.00
Student Rate - $149.00

Group rates available for parties of 3 or more. Contact education@les.org for information. 

Faculty

Gillian M. Fenton, Esq., CLP, Executive Director, LST Strategies LLC

Gillian M. Fenton, Esq., CLP has been a member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES, USA & Canada) since 1992, and served as the society President in 2020-2021.  Gillian’s contributions to LES and to the field of licensing were recognized with the society’s Frank Barnes Award in October 2022 and with listing in the IAM 300 in October 2023.  She presently serves as U.S. Counsel to LESI and is a member of the LES USA & Canada Public Policy Committee and Course Chair for IP Licensing Basics.

Gillian is the founder and executive director of LST Strategies LLC, a solo law practice dedicated to life science transactions.  For the prior 8 years, she was GSK Vaccines Special Counsel for Innovation and Government Collaborations.  At GSK, she supported a wide variety of business development transactions, R&D collaborations and U.S. Government Contracts including agreements with NIH/NIAID, BARDA, DARPA, CARB-X and NIIMBL.  Before joining GSK, Gillian was VP, Associate General Counsel & Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Emergent BioSolutions Inc., where she founded the IP department and supported all IP aspects of the company’s IPO and subsequent 9 years of growth through M&A in the vaccines, biodefense, and global health fields.  Gillian also spent over ten years in private practice at law firms in Boston, MA and Washington, DC.

Education: J.D. cum laude, Suffolk University Law School; B.Sc. Biochemistry, Trinity College. 
Admissions: MA, MD, DC.  Registered U.S. Patent Attorney.

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Jennifer R. Gottwald, Ph.D., CLP, Director of Licensing, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Jennifer Gottwald is a Director of Licensing at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), where she has worked for eighteen years. WARF manages the patenting and licensing of the University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW), the WiCell Research Institute, and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Dr. Gottwald is responsible for the licensing of a portfolio of life science research tool and biotechnology intellectual properties, including green technologies. She is a Certified Licensing Professional and Patent Agent. She received a B.S. in botany and German literature, and a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology, from the UW. She lectures in the M.S. in Biotechnology program at the UW, serves as a trustee of the WiSys Technology Foundation, and is a founder and active in the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Women Inventors group.

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Samuel Mercer, Consultant, President, Vancouver Island Life Sciences

Samuel Mercer has over 20 years of global pharmaceutical development experience, previously managing external agreements and outsourcing in the areas of multinational clinical trials, IT and scientific consulting, academic alliances, and pharma licensing, and negotiating directly over USD 600 million in varied external agreements for both Roche and Novartis in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to this, he managed proposals, contracts, and business development at several global contract research organizations in the UK and US. More recently, he is a management consultant, interim executive, board member, and advisor to a number of biotechnology and software/tech startups. His focus is on technology and IP development, clinical trial strategy, financial modelling, startup-company strategy and funding, and negotiating and managing of complex business agreements.

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CANCELLATION and REFUND POLICY:

No refunds will be granted for this education session.

LES regrets that refunds will not be given for no-shows.

A transfer of your full registration to another individual is permitted prior to the course by submitting written request to education@les.org. The individual submitting the transfer request is responsible for all financial obligations (any balance due) associated with that substitution. Funds from this program cannot be transferred to another education session without prior management approval.

EMAIL CONSENT:

By registering for this event, you permit LES to use your email address to communicate with you regarding LES events and their other services. You will have the ability to unsubscribe from these communications going forward.

PHOTOGRAPHY CONSENT:

By registering for this event, you permit LES to use photographs of you with or without your name and for any lawful purpose, including for example such purposes as publicity, illustration, advertising, and web content.