Mehrin ("Mir") Masud-Elias

Mehrin (“Mir”) Masud-Elias is Executive Director of Legal Affairs and Immunotherapy Collaborations for the Abramson Cancer Center (Cancer Center), supporting the Center’s clinical, scientific research and immunotherapy research collaboration activities as chief counsel, along with a small legal team that she supervises. Mir has over 20 years of legal experience in complex corporate transactions, including in the higher educational and non-profit context. As a member of the Cancer Center’s executive committee, Mir routinely provides advice on strategic initiatives for the Cancer Center.

Mir previously was a corporate transactional and M&A lawyer for 10+ years working for large law firms in Philadelphia (Morgan Lewis and Duane Morris) and Boston (Goodwin Proctor) and also spent some time as in-house counsel for Comcast Corporation. Mir 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. Mir 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.

Mir 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. Mir 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.

Mir 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, Mir loves to go on hikes with her dogs, fly fish, 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.

 

Support Staff:

Lisa Coyle 
Senior Contract Administrator
Phone: (215) 220-9666
licoyle@upenn.edu

Practice Areas:

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