Overview
Bernadette Tiso has spent two decades as a life sciences lawyer. Among her proudest work: the legal structure behind a global consortium for neglected tropical disease research.
During Bernadette Tiso's time at the New York Blood Center, a researcher working on neglected tropical diseases wanted to bring institutions around the world together to pool their expertise and pursue funding as a group. The idea was that, together, they could attract larger funders and advance research that might struggle to get support if each institution went it alone, Tiso said.
Tiso, then a lawyer at the Blood Center, had never worked on a project like it. She helped develop the legal and operational framework to make the collaboration possible.
"It was a little bit of a creative endeavor," she said.
About a decade later, the consortium has grown to more than 400 institutions around the world, she said.
For Tiso, a Cure member and now general counsel and vice president of operations at Lachman Consultants, the project captured what she enjoys about working with scientists: helping them find a way to pursue ideas that might otherwise be difficult to bring to life. Lachman provides compliance, regulatory affairs, and technical services to life sciences companies.
"They're just so passionate, and that passion can be really infectious," she said. "You just want to support their work."
Know When to Step In
Tiso started out advising biotech companies on FDA regulations, eventually moved in-house at the Blood Center, and found herself taking on bigger challenges as the organization grew. Her responsibilities expanded to include advising the executive team and board on major business decisions, acquisitions, governance, and research collaborations. She also took on operational responsibilities that extended well beyond traditional legal work.
That evolution didn't necessarily come from a carefully mapped-out career plan.
"Sometimes you just have to jump in and figure out how to do things that aren't necessarily related to legal at all," she said.
That willingness to take ownership became especially important as the Blood Center grew. During Tiso's tenure, she said, the organization doubled in headcount and revenue and expanded its presence to 28 states. Its growth brought new complexity, and Tiso sometimes found herself helping the organization catch up operationally by organizing people and putting processes in place.
She also worked on the legal and operational challenges that followed the Blood Center's mergers and acquisitions. Once deals closed, she said, there was still a long process of bringing organizations together. Teams from different parts of the country, accustomed to working in different ways, had to become part of one larger enterprise. That work called for coordination across teams and an understanding of how the organization operated.
Tiso said that kind of flexibility becomes increasingly important as someone moves into senior leadership. For her, effective legal work depends on understanding what different teams need, listening to their priorities, and taking in information from across the organization.
"I don't think you can lawyer effectively unless you work very closely with operations teams, scientific teams, finance, and the business strategy heads," she said.
She's also learned how important it is to build and retain a strong team. Tiso said her own success is closely tied to the people she recruits and manages, and she wants to see them advance, even if that eventually means moving beyond their current roles.
"You want to see them succeed, and you want them to be promoted, and you want them to surpass you," she said.
Stay Curious and Keep Learning From Others
For people hoping to build careers at the intersection of law, healthcare, and life sciences, Tiso has a simple piece of advice: Stay curious and get comfortable with not knowing everything.
A background in hard science can be useful, she said, particularly when working alongside researchers and clinicians. But Tiso never had one herself, so she knows firsthand that it's not a requirement to grow in the field.
"Sometimes you're going to be sitting in a room of scientists and you really don't know what they're talking about," she said. "I think you want to be someone who's always learning and always open and curious."
What matters more, she said, is being willing to walk into that room, ask questions, and learn from them.
"Just because you don't have a degree doesn't mean you can't learn," she said.
That mindset has shaped how she thinks about mentorship, too. Tiso said some of her mentors have been colleagues and peers, including people in different disciplines. She's also open to learning from more junior colleagues when they have skills or approaches she admires.
"I'm always open to letting myself be mentored by anyone."
She remembers advice someone gave her early in her career: "If you really wanted to learn something, you'll always be able to find someone willing to teach you." It's advice that has stayed with her as she's moved through different roles and worked with people across the industry, she said.
Looking Ahead With the Cure Community
At Lachman, Tiso is looking forward to combining her legal and operational experience in a more formal way. She said she's eager to play a direct role in the company's strategic planning, including conversations with its leadership about how the business can grow and evolve.
Tiso also sees New York City as an emerging biotech hub and believes Cure should be part of that growth. She's watched biotech communities develop in other parts of the country and is excited to be in New York as its own life sciences scene continues to take shape.
She's bringing the same curiosity to her involvement with Cure, where she enjoys meeting people doing work she doesn't know much about.
"Every time I'm at Cure, I meet someone who's doing something interesting or in a corner of this industry that I don't know as much about," she said.
