Stephen Abreu (Board Member)

steveMr. Stephen (“Steve”) Abreu is the first FPOC alumnus to join For People of Color, Inc.’s Board of Directors. He attended FPOC’s very first law school admissions workshop. Raised in a single parent household, Stephen grew up in the small town of Escondido in Southern California. He is of Latino descent: His mother is from Puerto Rico, and his father from the Dominican Republic. He attended UC Santa Cruz for his undergraduate and graduate degrees in molecular biology and UC Davis for law school. Like many of our constituency he worked throughout his undergraduate career to put himself through school and is the first in his family to attend college and law school.

Stephen Abreu is a partner in Sidley Austin LLP’s San Francisco Office.  He focuses on structuring and negotiating complex intellectual property and commercial transactions for life sciences companies, including strategic collaborations, cross-border transactions, and co-development, license and manufacturing agreements. Stephen leverages both his graduate training as a molecular biologist and his experience leading monoclonal antibody research and development programs in advising his clients on their transactional and business matters. Stephen brings a creative and thoughtful approach to addressing the needs of his clients.

Stephen has extensive knowledge in university transactions gained while working for the University of California, San Francisco as the Industry Contracts Manager for the Diabetes Center and the Immune Tolerance Network. In that capacity, Stephen was responsible for managing all industry relations between these departments and companies operating in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and digital health space.

Stephen was recognized in the 2021 edition of Chambers USA in Life Sciences: Corporate/Commercial with clients noting, “he brings to bear a wealth of expertise and judgment in transactional work.” He was selected to appear in Latino Leaders magazine in 2020 on the “Top Latino Lawyers to Keep on Watch” list. In 2016, the Silicon Valley Business Journal named him in its annual “40 under 40” list and in 2015, he was selected as a member of the National Black Lawyers – Top 100 Lawyers. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis Martin Luther King Jr. School of Law.

*All titles and affiliations are for identification purposes only.