About Us
MANAGING MEMBER
TENA ZARA HERLIHY
Innovative companies of all sizes as well as prestigious universities look to Tena for a unique level of in-depth collaboration, creativity and dedication as a trusted advisor.
Tena founded TZ Counsel in order to provide world class legal representation without big firm fees. Tena’s 25-year legal career includes more than 12 years in the MIT ecosystem, including acting as General Counsel and founding executive of two Harvard/MIT startups.
Her current practice focuses on handling both complex and day-to-day corporate matters. She often works closely with companies acting as outside counsel providing in-house/general counsel services. She handles patent licensing agreements, clinical research study agreements, material transfer agreements, master services agreements, collaboration agreements and more.
Accent Therapeutics, Ankyra Therapeutics, and Zenas BioPharma are among her current biotech/pharma clients. She also serves a key role in advising a mix of health-tech, ed-tech, software and education clients including 21CS and Six Red Marbles.
Tena has also served as in-house counsel for a clinical research organization and a bioinformatics company, as Assistant Director and Counsel for Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Transfer Office and as Counsel for MIT’s General Counsel’s Office.
Tena was co-founder, VP of Business Affairs and then General Counsel & Secretary of edX, an online educational platform offering courses from the best universities in the world to everyone in the world with an internet connection.
In her role at edX, Tena set up the entire legal department from the ground up. She handled issues ranging from copyright licensing, open-source software, data privacy, international contracts, export control, non-profit governance, board relationships, employment law, real estate and more. Tena and her team drafted and negotiated agreements with 100 of the best universities and corporations in the world as part of the edX consortium.
Tena also served as General Counsel for Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), an entity launched out of MIT with $300M in private and public funding, also setting up the legal function for the company.
Before going in-house, Tena was in private practice at Sunstein LLP, Goulston & Storrs and Holland & Knight.
Tena received her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, where she received a full scholarship as the first woman to win the Grantland Rice award for sports writing. She graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School.
Of Counsel
PATRICIA PADUREAN
Patricia is an experienced general counsel who blends business acumen with legal expertise to drive strategic outcomes.
Prior to joining TZ Counsel, Patricia served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at iCAD, Inc., a global medical device manufacturer and cancer detection software company servicing the needs of hospitals, physicians, and academic centers. At iCAD, she spearheaded legal operations while fortifying corporate governance practices. Grounded in a business mindset, she navigated complex commercial landscapes, overseeing SEC compliance, mergers and acquisitions and litigation management. As part of her role, she was responsible for all commercial contracting, including intellectual property licensing, material transfer agreements, supply agreements, strategic alliance agreements, distribution agreements and more. She also handled SEC compliance and reporting, global regulatory compliance and ethics (including HIPAA, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and employment matters. As corporate secretary, she was responsible for all aspects of corporate governance for the Board of Directors and Board committees.
Before iCAD, Patricia held a pivotal role for NeoGenomics Laboratories. Inc., an international cancer research laboratory. As Assistant General Counsel, she supported the clinical and pharma business divisions in day-to-day commercial transactions and provided legal support for strategic initiatives such as international expansions into Switzerland, Singapore, and China. In addition, she provided legal and regulatory guidance to stakeholders across all company departments regarding HIPAA, GDPR, surprise billing laws and sunshine laws, and she was responsible for drafting company policies regarding remote work, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance, and document retention.
Patricia received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. She holds a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin.
In her free time, Patricia enjoys painting and going on adventures with her two small children.
OF COUNSEL
JASON T. NICKLA
Jason provides transactional counsel to a wide range of clients with a focus on pharmaceutical and life sciences clients. Jason balances his role as Of Counsel at TZC with his role as Director of Intellectual Property for the University of Nebraska Medical Center where he has worked for the past decade.
Jason draws on his experience handling thousands of complex agreements for the medical center to find creative solutions for TZC clients. He has completed agreements with parties located in fifty-five different countries, handling intellectual property licenses, research collaborations, material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, services agreements and more.
As a registered patent attorney, Jason recognizes the tremendous value in intellectual property rights and ensures they are protected and utilized to their fullest potential. Jason manages the medical center’s patent portfolio and files patent applications on behalf of the university. The University of Nebraska consistently ranks among the top 100 academic institutions worldwide in earning U.S. patents. His experience also includes working at a Chicago patent law firm specializing in analyzing and protecting new inventions in many different fields, from fertility endocrinology to gaming software.
As a consultant for the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), a Washington, DC think tank, Jason traveled to Asia several times to hold meetings with university, government, and business leaders regarding innovation policies, as well as to present at conferences, including with the USPTO for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
Jason has taught MBA and graduate courses on Intellectual Property Law and Bioscience Entrepreneurship for the University of Nebraska.
Jason graduated from Creighton University School of Law and earned an LLM, with honors, in International Intellectual Property from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Prior to law school, Jason received a BS in Biology from Creighton University and worked in a neuroethology research laboratory.
In his free time, Jason enjoys taking family trips and slow-smoking BBQ.
Contract Manager
NIKITA BOZICEVIC
Nikita handles administrative functions for TZ Counsel, including contract management, technical support, and client engagement.
She also provides contract management services to clients. She is able to guide clients in implementing simple yet organized foundational contract management systems via SharePoint or DropBox in a way that will prepare them for a smooth transition to an automated contract management software if they would like to do so in the future. As she has experience with data migration between contract management systems, she knows how to set clients up for success. Nikita works closely with various client departments, including legal, HR, finance, and accounting. So, she understands the needs of other departments relative to legal in order to facilitate a cohesive contract management system accessible to all. She has also aided in training employees in contract management systems company-wide.
Nikita graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida and earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Linguistics and Foreign Languages and Literatures – Russian. Prior to joining TZ Counsel, Nikita worked as a teaching assistant at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Medicine Simulation Center. There, she assisted doctors and other healthcare professionals in training medical students, recently graduated nurses, and residents. She also compiled and organized statistical research data on the results of simulations, edited computer software for medical case scenarios, and acted as a simulated patient while running the computer-generated physiological changes for the high-fidelity manikins during each of the medical scenarios. In addition, Nikita received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship for Russian in the summer of 2019 which enabled her to study at Moscow State University (Московский государственный университет). She has received awards from the Florida Association for Food Protection and from the University of Florida’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences for her research project: “Biofilm Reduction in E. coli and C. freundii.” Nikita also taught English to Visiting Scholars at the University of Florida.
Nikita enjoys learning about languages, editing manuscripts, and writing science fiction and fantasy. She is currently working on a novel and a children’s book.