The attorneys in Ogletree Deakins’ Life Sciences Industry Group have decades of experience representing publicly and privately held companies in the broad range of life sciences businesses, including biotechnology, pharma, medical devices, medical software, and informatics. Ogletree Deakins understands the unique challenges facing organizations operating in the life sciences industry. We partner with in-house counsel and senior management to resolve complex litigation, provide core legal support, advise and train supervisory personnel, and address multifaceted administrative, policy, and compliance challenges.
The attorneys in our Life Sciences Industry Group have extensive experience working with C-suite executives, boards of directors, in-house counsel, and senior leadership teams of companies at the forefront of the life sciences industry.
We advise life science employers on a broad range of employment law and policy matters, bringing to bear our vast knowledge base through cutting edge AI and knowledge management. Our experience in this space includes trade secret and unfair competition matters; employment law compliance; whistleblower laws; pay equity issues; discrimination allegations; wage and hour matters; Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliance; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) developments.
We represent life science employers in courts and agencies across the country when disputes arise, ranging from employment discrimination charges, to single-plaintiff lawsuits, to class actions asserting wage and hour or discrimination claims.
Through our Cross-Border Practice Group, we counsel life sciences employers regarding data privacy concerns, cross-border investigations, global labor mobility, employment terminations, and litigation and arbitration of employment disputes.
We provide risk management advice and preventive counseling about potential consequences associated with innovative and commonplace business practices.
Representative Experience
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in a $4 billion acquisition. Our employee benefits team advised on the negotiation of the key employee benefits provisions and post-closing benefits, and we provided integration counseling.
- Represented a major pharmaceutical company in a federal lawsuit alleging violations of federal and state discrimination laws based upon the termination of the company’s director of medical communications. We successfully resolved the litigation on terms equivalent to the pre-litigation severance offer.
- Advised medical software and pharmaceutical clients on privacy issues posed by emerging technology and assisted with privacy notices, data protection impact assessments, contracts, and terms and conditions language.
- Counseled clients on clinical trial data compliance issues arising under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and emerging state law analogues (e.g., Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and North Dakota), as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Clinical Trials Regulation in the European Union.
- Worked with a pharmaceutical company to determine whether it was a “lab” for reporting requirements in the testing of its own employees.
- Advised and represented a large pharmaceutical company in collective bargaining, conducted union vulnerability assessments, and assisted the company in devising union avoidance strategies.
- Developed and executed a nationwide enforcement strategy for our client after it identified nearly 25 employees who improperly accessed/downloaded confidential company information in connection with a nationwide reduction in force. Our approach resulted in the return of all confidential information and repayment of the client’s legal and expert fees without litigation, while maintaining releases from all separated employees.
- Designed, structured, and led a highly sensitive investigation of serious allegations of mistreatment, bias, and bullying against a C-suite executive. Working with multiple offices, we conducted an investigation that included more than 20 interviews. The investigation revealed several significant adverse findings, which resulted in discipline and coaching of the executive. The client was able to maintain the employment of several of the complaining executives without litigation.
