Shawn Cloonan, JD

Shawn W. Cloonan serves as Co-Life Science Lead & General Counsel of McCord Development, Inc., where he oversees all legal aspects of the firm, advises on strategic development projects, and leads McCord’s efforts in developing assets to serve the life science and biotechnology industry.

Prior to joining McCord in 2020, Cloonan served as Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Texas Medical Center since 2013. In his role at TMC, Cloonan was responsible for all operations, planning and development as well as legal aspects of the corporation.  Simultaneously, Cloonan drove commercialization of R&D activities with the medical center, including the development of the TMC Innovation Institute and Johnson & Johnson’s JLabs@TMC and the recruitment of J&J’s Center for Device Innovation.

Cloonan lead both the business and legal negotiations on behalf of TMC for Helix Park, a $1.5 billion research and innovation campus structured as a public private partnership between MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas A&M University Health Science Center and Baylor College of Medicine.

Before joining the Texas Medical Center, Cloonan was a public finance attorney representing health care, governmental and higher education clients for Vinson & Elkins LLP and Bracewell LLP.  In addition to representation on bond financing, Cloonan represented clients on general counsel matters and real estate and development.

Cloonan holds a Bachelor of Arts – Magna Cum Laude in government from the University of Texas at Austin and earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence with Honors from The University of Texas School of Law.  

He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and is active on its Executive Committee and Board of Directors.  Cloonan was honored to receive the Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 Award in 2013 and was named to the Top 100 Irish Lawyers in America List in 2015.