Latham & Watkins

General practice firm Latham & Watkins handles the full gamut of financial and corporate work for life sciences companies. One peer supports this point by saying: "They have a broad practice that involves early stage financing, venture capital, licensing and collaboration, as well as M&A." Among the firms with "the biggest market share," the firm is distinguished for doing a high volume in the financial and corporate space according to peers in the practice area. A client highlights the firm for its "expertise with life sciences companies."

Global chair of the life sciences licensing group Judith Hasko is considered "one of the top people in the collaborations space" according to a competitor. Most recently, Hasko advised late-stage clinical biotechnology company Prothena in a global multi-year research and development collaboration with Celgene Corporation. The collaboration has a potential total value of over $2 billion. This year Hasko was inducted in the LMG Life Sciences Hall of Fame, a selective honor that recognizes outstanding careers in the industry.

Known to a peer as "one of the top people" and a "grandfather of the practice," life sciences group co-chair Alan Mendelson handles a high volume of IPOs on both the issuer and underwriter side. Along with Mendelson, notable financial stars Brian Cuneo, Peter Handrinos, Mark Roeder, Cheston Larson and Patrick Pohlen handled the firm's high volume of IPOs in the past year, advising on both the issuer and underwriter sides for numerous clients.

Charles Ruck serves clients from both the firm's Orange County and New York offices, focusing on advising clients on mergers and acquisitions. Recently, Ruck and Scott Shean advised Ignyta in its sale to Roche, and handled a merger of equals to create a diversified pharmaceutical company with the fifth largest generics business in the US.

Latham & Watkins provides a full suite of IP services for life sciences clients, most notably in patent litigation. The firm has an established practice in Hatch-Waxman disputes for generic companies, and is active in biosimilars litigation under the Biologic Price Competition and Innovation Act.

IP litigation group co-chair Michael Morin offers extensive experience in pharmaceutical patent disputes, and is one of the firm's leading attorneys handling biosimilars litigations. He is currently serving as lead counsel for AbbVie in various competitor disputes, including consolidated suits in the District of Delaware that assert five patents against Gilead for its blockbuster drug Harvoni. David Frazier is co-lead with Morin in the ongoing case Amgen v AbbVie, defending AbbVie against an attempt to launch a biosimilar of its $14 billion drug Humira. Maximilian Grant contributed to the firm's active year in patent litigation with two cases in the district courts for medical device client InfoBionic, as well as related IPRs at the Patent Office. David Callahan successfully defended Zimmer Biomet in a multibillion-dollar dispute against Howmedica which lasted 13 years. The team was successful in invalidating four patents to secure the win and obtained $14 million in attorney's fees.

Kenneth Schuler and Daniel Brown are both significantly involved in Hatch-Waxman disputes. They are currently representing Mallinckrodt in a series of patent infringement suits related to the client's drug Ofirmev. The firm was shortlisted in the generics category for Hatch-Waxman Litigation Firm of the Year at the 2018 LMG Life Sciences Awards.

Latham & Watkins is an international firm with an impressive roster of litigators and counselors focused on the life sciences industry. The firm is deeply qualified in the financial space, evidenced by its top ranking in every practice area involving transactional and corporate work. "Latham is one of the few firms that we see across the entire life cycle of the life sciences practice," a corporate attorney at a competing firm says. The firm is also a major IP player in biosimilars disputes and litigations under the Hatch-Waxman Act.

The firm is a powerhouse in financial matters, bolstered by its extensive bench of attorneys versed in licensing, M&A, venture capital and general corporate matters. Licensing group chair Judith Hasko is labeled "one of the top people in the collaborations space" by a peer. For her outstanding career in the industry, this year Hasko was one of the few attorneys inducted into the LMG Life Sciences Hall of Fame. Alan Mendelson serves as co-chair of the life sciences industry group, and focuses his individual practice on representing emerging companies in various financial matters. He recently represented Sienna Biopharmaceuticals and Unity Biotechnology in multimillion-dollar IPOs. Charles Ruck has a broad-based practice in the financial sector. This year he was shortlisted for two awards by LMG Life Sciences – corporate attorney and M&A attorney of the year.

Michael Morin and David Callahan lead the firm's global IP litigation practice group, and are involved in some of the firm's most notable patent disputes. Morin is active as lead counsel for AbbVie in multiple matters, including a five-patent suit against Gilead involving the blockbuster drug Harvoni. Callahan defended Zimmer Biomet in a multibillion-dollar dispute against Howmedica which lasted 13 years. Kenneth Schuler and Daniel Brown are both significantly involved in Hatch-Waxman disputes for generic client. They have represented Mallinckrodt in a series of pharmaceutical patent disputes. David Frazier is defending AbbVie alongside Michael Morin in the noteworthy biologic dispute Amgen v AbbVie. Other notable patent practitioners at the firm include Richard Bress, Roger Chin and Maximilian Grant.

In litigation and enforcement, Latham is top-ranked for competition and antitrust matters, and is also notable for its capabilities in the white-collar space. Daniel Meron is global co-chair of the healthcare and life sciences practice group, and one of the firm's stellar practitioners handling government investigations work. Katherine Lauer, also co-chair of the healthcare and life sciences group, focuses on healthcare fraud and qui tam matters. David Schindler co-heads the firm's white-collar defense and investigations practice.

Latham's regulatory team includes standout attorneys Benneville Haas, Stuart Kurlander and John Manthei. Manthei serves as global co-chair of the firm's healthcare and life sciences practice group, and is focused on representing clients in all areas of a product's regulatory life cycle. Kurlander is one of the firm's experts in pricing and reimbursement matters. Haas represents companies in various regulatory matters, with a particular focus advising clients in clinical trials.

While it is more widely recognized for its position as a "clear leader" in the corporate transactional space, Latham & Watkins also boasts a rising profile in the litigation and disputes capacity as well.

The firm is perhaps most famed for its antitrust prowess, with Dan Wall being noted by a unanimous sampling of peers as "a stellar presence." Wall leads a team that represents Genentech, a biopharmaceutical manufacturer, in an antitrust litigation filed by Russian drug manufacturer Biocad JSC. Biocad alleges that defendants violated the federal antitrust laws and other state and federal laws by engaging in a scheme to prevent Biocad from introducing into the US market generic versions of three major cancer drugs manufactured by Roche, including implementing illegal tying arrangements and engaging in predatory pricing. The Plaintiff asserts violations of the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and Robinson-Patman Act, in addition to various business tort claims under New York state law. In a major victory for Genentech, the court granted defendants' motions, dismissing the complaint in its entirety with prejudice in September 2017.