McDermott Will & Emery

McDermott Will & Emery is a Chicago-based international law firm with a thriving life sciences transactional practice largely located in Boston. The firm is on the rise due to its ability to service the needs of firms on a global scale across a broad array of technologies; this is a particularly useful combination in today's disruptive, convergent market. McDermott is active representing pharmaceuticals and big medical technology companies and the firm collaborates closely with its foreign offices, particularly in Paris, which was recently bolstered by the addition of one of Dechert's top attorneys Emmanuelle Trombe. The firm is unique for bringing together dealmakers for an annual networking event called the Pharma MedTech deal making symposium, which has recently moved to life sciences hub Cambridge, MA: topics of discussion include venture capital, personalized medicine, and how to navigate the deal environment.

McDermott has made a point of recruiting top attorneys for the practice including Founder & Chair of the Life Sciences Industry Practice Byron Kalogerou and Partner Kristian Werling. Byron has a wealth of in-house experience and is seasoned in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and in collaborations. During 17 years in-house at Tyco International, he guided the company's creation of Tyco Healthcare, which evolved into the spinoff Covidien that was acquired by Medtronic. A colleague praises Werling as a "true business lawyer in the life sciences, who recognizes the need for speed," adding, "We saw him the other side of the table on a couple of deals and said we need this guy on our team." The firm is the recipient of the LMG Life Sciences 2016 Collaboration Impact Deal of the Year award on account of partner Sarah Hogan, a former scientist and an expert in health information technology who counsels on licensing and collaborations. She led the representation of biopharmaceutical company Baxalta in a potentially $1.6 billion collaboration with Precision BioSciences to develop CAR T cell therapies for drug-resistant cancers. Additionally, she has advised French company Innate Pharma on a $1.275 billion partnership agreement with AstraZeneca, which will accelerate the development of prospective cancer treatments. Silicon Valley-based Paul DeStefano is a seasoned counselor to startups and universities with a client roster in the hundreds; he advises on IPOs and strategic alliances. Recently, he represented PharmAbcine, Inc., in an exclusive license agreement with TriPhase Research and Development II Corporation involving a cancer treatment.

McDermott Will & Emery is a full-service firm assisting clients in the life sciences and is held in particularly high esteem in the liability and investigations areas. Industry peers were quick to point out the firm's strong work representing Pharmacal, a manufacturer of animal research lab products, in a false claims action as well as the firm's experience representing Amgen in an antitrust case following their acquisition of Onyx. The firm also has extensive experience handling white-collar cases on behalf of major multinational corporations in pharmaceuticals, supplements, diagnostics and animal health. Jeffrey Brennan leads a team that currently serves as antitrust counsel to a pharmaceutical company in a non-public and confidential FTC investigation into a patent settlement agreement. He also served as antitrust counsel to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals before the Federal Trade Commission in connection with Alnylam's 2014 acquisition from Merck of its Sirna Therapeutics subsidiary and RNAi assets.