Scipione Legal Solutions

About Scipione Legal Solutions

Scipione Legal Solutions, which operates online as SSG: Research Integrity, is a Toronto firm that works on one thing: research integrity and research misconduct. It's a solo practice built around a single lawyer, Gianfranco Scipione, who represents researchers named as respondents in institutional misconduct proceedings, drafts authorship agreements before collaborations run into trouble, and advises on allegations that arise under Canada's Tri-Agency Responsible Conduct of Research framework. The firm describes itself as the first law firm in Canada dedicated solely to this area of law, and it takes on researchers from across the country, not only in Toronto.

Before opening the firm, Scipione spent close to five years managing more than thirty integrity cases at UHN, Canada's largest academic research institution, including the Asa v. UHN family of cases that set precedent for how Canadian institutions handle research misconduct. Earlier, Scipione worked for nearly five years as a pharmaceutical litigation lawyer, handling patent disputes in Federal Court over drugs including pemetrexed, ciprofloxacin, and pregabalin. That path, from bench science to pharmaceutical litigation to research integrity law, runs through three degrees from the University of Windsor: a B.Sc. Honours in Biochemistry, an M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry, and a J.D./M.B.A.