Press Release

Boston, MA, April 5, 2021 – Burns & Levinson has added three lateral attorneys – John Buchanan, Ph.D., Ian Epperson-Temple and Sarah Oster – to its team. Buchanan has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, Epperson-Temple has joined the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Group, and Oster has joined the Private Client Group.
As an associate in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, Dr. John Buchanan will continue to focus his practice on U.S. and international patent prosecution in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields for life science companies and academic institutions. His technological areas of expertise include small molecules, organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and process chemistry. He has experience in patentability, infringement, validity, and freedom-to-operate analyses. Prior to law school, Dr. Buchanan spent 20 years working as a medicinal and process chemist at The Upjohn Company, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, and Kinetix/Amgen Inc. He has a B.S. in chemistry and mathematics, cum laude, from Hope College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 2017.

Ian Epperson-Temple will continue to focus on business and commercial litigation matters as an associate in the firm’s Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He has experience representing a range of clients from global corporations to local organizations in both state and federal courts throughout all aspects of litigation and dispute resolution forums. Prior to joining Burns & Levinson, Epperson-Temple was a litigation associate at a national law firm in Boston. He received his B.A. from Morehouse College and his J.D. from New England Law in 2017.

As an associate in the firm’s Private Client Group, Sarah Oster will continue to concentrate her practice on divorce and family law, trusts and estates, and fiduciary litigation. She is experienced in divorce, alimony, custody, child custody, child support, relocation, and other family court litigation, as well as estate planning involving wills, trusts, guardianships, and other probate matters. Oster received her B.A. from Wheaton College and her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2012. Resident in the firm’s Providence office, she is also a certified mediator.