Mehrin (“Mir”) Masud-Elias is Executive Director of Legal Affairs and Immunotherapy Collaborations for the Abramson Cancer Center, supporting the Center’s clinical, scientific research and immunotherapy research collaboration activities, along with a small legal team that she supervises.

Ms. Masud-Elias previously was a corporate transactional lawyer for 10+ years working for large law firms in Philadelphia and Boston and also spent some time as in-house counsel for Comcast Corporation. Ms. Masud-Elias holds several volunteer leadership and fundraising roles with various nonprofit and professional organizations, including Twelve Gates Arts, where she is a founding Board member and Board Secretary, as well as Pasión y Arte, a Philadelphia-based contemporary Flamenco dance company. Ms. Masud-Elias has been recognized as one of 30 Pennsylvania “Lawyers on the Fast Track” by Pennsylvania’s preeminent legal publication, the Legal Intelligencer. She has also served on the Philadelphia Mayor's Commissioner on Asian American Affairs.

Ms. Masud-Elias attended Amherst College (B.A., magna cum laude, 1997) where she was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her law degree from the Columbia University School of Law (J.D., 2001) where she was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Ms. Masud-Elias also spent two years at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) doing undergraduate work in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. She received her Master of Bioethics degree at the University's Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy in 2015, and a certificate in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience in 2020 from the University’s Center for Neuroscience and Society.

Ms. Masud-Elias is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

In her free time, Ms. Masud-Elias loves to ride her bike, go jogging with her dogs, fly fish, practice archery, cook food from around the world, travel to out of the way places, learn to dance and appreciate all things Flamenco and write poetry. She and her husband split their time between University City, Philadelphia and rural South Central Pennsylvania.

Practice Areas:

• Compliance/Regulatory
• Transactional
• Intellectual Property
• Research (including Industry Collaborations)
• Healthcare