Randy Berholtz, M.Litt, M.B.A., J.D.

Senior Counsel

randy@torreypineslaw.com
main: +1 (858) 869-1250

Randy Berholtz is an exceptionally talented attorney, business executive, and entrepreneur who has served on the executive teams of biotech and pharmaceutical companies including: Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGEN) where he was General Counsel and Secretary; the ACON Group of private US and Chinese life science companies where he was General Counsel and Secretary; Apricus Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: APRI) where he was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; and Innovus Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTC: INNV) where he was Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

He is a Senior Advisor to Mesa Verde Venture Partners, LLC, a life sciences venture capital firm, and he is on the board of directors of three private companies: Ambulero, Inc., Rora Biologics, Inc., Inc., and Eysz, Inc. Randy also spent many years as a lawyer with large law firms in New York (Cravath LLP) and San Diego (Cooley LLP and Heller LLP).

For more than 20 years, Randy’s legal practice has included advising clients on corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, public and private financing, venture capital, corporate governance, licensing, commercial agreements, employment, and real estate matters. His clients include life sciences companies, healthcare providers, venture capital funds, angel investor groups, and private equity firms in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley.

Having served as Chief Compliance Officer as well as on the corporate governance side, Randy has handled SEC, FDA and Department of Justice Investigations. He has also advised his clients on pre-litigation disputes, mediation and conflict resolution matters.

Randy received the In-House Counsel of the Year Award for two years put forth by the San Diego Business Journal and was named In-House Counsel of the Year for the Legal Profession by the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.

He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law for 14 years where he taught an IP Honors Seminar, Biotechnology Law, a Technology Law Externship, Contracts Drafting, and taught Comparative Biotechnology Law: US and China at the Zhejian University, Guangha College of Law in Hangzhou, China. He was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law where he taught an In-House Counsel course for three years. Randy previously was a Lecturer at the Rady School of Business at UC San Diego where he taught business law and international trade law. He also lectured at the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences and at the Claremont Colleges where he taught Business Law, Intellectual Property, Licensing and Patent Litigation.

Randy previously served as a judicial clerk to Judge Jerry E. Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas. He also served as a legislative intern to U.S. Representative Frank Harrison (PA) in Washington, D.C., as an intern with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., as an executive intern to the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury in Harrisburg, PA, and as a commercial intern with the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce’s Overseas Industrial Office in London, England.

Randy earned his Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School where he was a Senior Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and an MBA from the University of San Diego. He recveived a BA in political economy (summa cum laude) from Cornell University, and an M.Litt. in Politics and Regulation from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar.