Sheila Mikhail, founder and managing member of Life Sciences Law (LSL) has almost twenty-five years of experience in providing legal counsel to life sciences companies and management consulting. Sheila applies the operational strategies that she learned as a consultant employed by Arthur Andersen and AT Kearney to improve efficiencies in legal contracting. Through LSL, she has been responsible for clinical trials contracting for several large multinational pharmaceutical companies, as well as several emerging biotechs. Many of the techniques that she advocates to improve contracting processes were successfully implemented for these clients. Before establishing LSL, Sheila was Law Clerk to the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey, 6th Circuit, US Court of Appeals. She also worked with Ropes & Gray, LLP in Boston. Sheila has been an invited speaker to BIO2010 to discuss clinical trials contracting. She has also spoken at the Management Biotech Conference at Northwestern University, the Industry Symposium at Ohio State University's Medical Center, and various MAGI Clinical Research Conferences. Her recently published article in Applied Clinical Trials Magazine highlighted tools to improve clinical trials contracting. Sheila was identified as one of the 50 most influential people in North Carolina by being named a 2009 NC Power Player, as well as being recognized by Business Leader Media as one of the top 100 attorneys in North Carolina. Sheila received a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with highest honors; a finance M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, with honors; and a J.D. from Northwestern University, with honors. Sheila is admitted to the bars of Massachusetts, Arizona, New York and North Carolina.