Former Goodwin Partners Launch AI-Driven IP Law Firm Targeting Life Sciences Startups

Antheros, a San Francisco-based law firm founded in 2025, represents a new wave of AI-native legal practices designed to transform intellectual property services for early-stage life sciences companies. The firm was established by three former Goodwin Procter IP attorneys: partners Sabrina Poulos and Kristin Havranek, and associate Stephanie Dusaban Gonzales. All three also previously worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where Poulos held a partnership role.

The founders built Antheros around the premise that intellectual property practice, which combines routine drafting and prosecution with high-level strategic decision-making, is particularly well-suited to AI integration. By automating repetitive tasks such as drafting portions of patent applications, the firm’s attorneys can dedicate more time to advising clients on broader portfolio strategies.

"There's a lot of high-level thinking, but there's also a lot of rote work in drafting up the specs and doing a lot of the prosecution," Poulos explained. "AI lets us compress that, ... and that gives us the space, the freedom and the time to really sit there and think strategically about the client's portfolio."

Antheros’s approach extends beyond legal practice to its business model. From inception, the firm designed every workflow with AI as a foundational element, influencing hiring practices and fee structures. This AI-centric design enables the firm to offer subscription-based billing, providing clients with predictable costs for IP services.

The firm’s approximately dozen-person team includes associates, patent agents, and other professionals, all working within AI-optimized workflows. The founders’ technical backgrounds—Poulos in pharmaceutical research, Havranek as a medical device engineer, and Gonzales holding a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences—inform their deep understanding of the scientific and technological nuances critical to life sciences IP.

Antheros employs enterprise AI software from providers such as Harvey, LexisNexis, and AnkarAI to build customized workflows for discrete IP tasks, including gap analysis, patent prosecution, and communications with regulatory bodies like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The firm maintains a dedicated AI work team that meets weekly to evaluate tool effectiveness and adapt workflows as AI capabilities evolve.

"We know the basic buckets of everything we do within our practice and have mapped what we think are the best tools to use in those instances," Havranek said. "If something's more scientific, we might use a different tool than something that we are going to try to have some legal conclusions to, or an office action response might be best using a different tool than a drafting or a freedom to operate evaluation."

Despite the extensive use of AI, the founders emphasized that all work product undergoes attorney review. They acknowledged that significant elements of IP practice, especially in highly technical fields, require human expertise and judgment.

The emergence of Antheros reflects broader trends in the legal industry, where rapid advancements in generative AI are prompting new firm models that blend technology with traditional legal services. While many AI-native firms focus on commercial contracting, Antheros distinguishes itself by targeting the specialized needs of startups and emerging companies in life sciences, offering a full suite of transactional IP services.

By integrating AI into both legal workflows and business operations, Antheros aims to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance strategic counsel for clients navigating complex intellectual property landscapes.