Weil Gotshal & Manges

Weil Gotshal & Manges is an international firm with particular strength in general patent litigation for life sciences companies.

Silicon Valley partner Edward Reines is "smart," "aggressive" and a "very good overall strategic thinker," a peer says. He is often noted for his ability in appellate cases, and has significant experience handling patent jury trials. Reines recently represented Illumina in multiple patent disputes against its competitors, one of which resulted in a preliminary injunction ruling in favor of the client.

Elizabeth Weiswasser is described as "very bright and insightful" by a peer, and is one of the firm's leading patent litigators with an emphasis on the life sciences. She currently represents Sanofi in both IPR proceedings and a district court litigation related to the client's blockbuster Lantus Solostar insulin franchise. Both Reines and Weiswasser serve as co-heads of the nationwide patent litigation practice and the firm's life sciences practice. They were shortlisted by LMG Life Sciences for the General Patent Litigator of the Year Award in their respective jurisdictions of California and New York.

A full-service player on the national stage, Weil Gotshal & Manges has a long history of dominance in servicing some of the most prominent brand names in the life sciences industry, and an extensive network of practitioners distributed among its many US offices through which to service them. "Weil has always had a bit of an edge in this industry," notes a peer. "They got in early, particularly in the product liability area."

The gravitas of the alluded-to practice could arguably be most attributed to Diane Sullivan, based in the firm's Princeton office, who is recognized as one of the practice's busiest and most famed trial lawyers. Continuing a decades-long streak of high-level appointments, Sullivan served as lead trial counsel for Walgreens Boots Alliance, the owner and operator of the nationwide drugstore chain, in several high-profile consumer class actions filed against it and Theranos, the embattled (and now bankrupt) Silicon Valley entity that went from industry darling to corporate disgrace. The complaints allege that Theranos' finger-stick blood tests, which used its proprietary "Edison" blood-testing device, (and were ultimately proved fraudulent) were inaccurate, placing tens of thousands of customers at risk for incorrect medical diagnosis and/or testing. Walgreens and Theranos moved to dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint. In June 2017, a judge dismissed the majority of plaintiffs' claims, allowing plaintiffs to amend some, but not all, of the claims.

New York securities partner John Neuwirth has represented Sanofi in, among other matters, multiple federal litigations commenced by holders, or the representative of holders, of contingent value rights issued by Sanofi as partial consideration for its $20.1 billion acquisition of Genzyme Corporation in 2011. Also in New York, Yehudah Buchweitz also represents Sanofi as a plaintiff in a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Mylan for anticompetitive business practices to unlawfully maintain its $1 billion EpiPen monopoly. In December 2017, virtually every aspect of Mylan's motion to dismiss the complaint was denied, a significant victory for Sanofi.