Covington Adds Four Partners To Life Sciences Practice

Covington & Burling LLP said Monday it added four partners to its life sciences team in London. The new attorneys – Paul Claydon, Natalie Diep, James Gubbins and James Halstead – will work on M&A, private equity and venture transactions.

PRESS RELEASE

Covington Adds Four Partners To Life Sciences Team
LONDON, May 16, 2011 — Covington & Burling LLP adds a top life sciences corporate team to its London office, further enhancing its comprehensive global life sciences practice. Covington is pleased to announce that Paul Claydon, Natalie Diep, James Gubbins and James Halstead are joining Covington & Burling LLP as partners. They complement Covington’s highly regarded London and Brussels-based teams and cement the firm’s position as a leading global life sciences firm.

Claydon, Diep, Gubbins and Halstead advise life sciences, technology and renewable energy industry clients on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and follow-on financings, and private equity and venture capital transactions. The team has worked together for many years and enjoys a market-leading reputation for deals in the life sciences sector. From 2007 to 2010 the team was ranked first by Mergermarket for the number of UK Pharma M&A deals on which they advised and also achieved a top three ranking for the number of European Pharma M&A deals during the same period.

“The addition of this team is an important further step in our strategic growth in Europe,” said Timothy Hester, chair of Covington’s management committee. “They have a stellar reputation in both the life sciences and high tech sectors. They bring key capabilities and in-depth experience that will be a tremendous asset to our clients.”
Over the past few years the team has worked on a number of notable transactions including advising LSE-listed vaccine company Acambis plc on the £276 million recommended takeover offer from sanofi-aventis, advising AIM-listed IS Pharma plc on the recommended merger with Sinclair Pharma plc to create a fully integrated pan-European specialist pharmaceutical company, and advising Liberum Capital as nominated adviser and broker, on the AIM IPO and related US$80 million fundraising by HaloSource, Inc., a Seattle-based clean water and antimicrobial technology company.

“Covington is the leading global life sciences firm; quite simply, there could not be a better fit for our practice,” Mr. Claydon said.

“We have worked across the table from Covington and have always been impressed. Their leading regulatory and licensing practices are a unique asset and advantage to getting deals done. They are an important element of why we consider Covington to be the top life sciences firm globally,” Mr. Gubbins added.
Richard Kingham, co-chair of Covington’s international life sciences practice, commented: “The addition of this team further enhances our ability to provide a comprehensive global service to our life sciences clients from both sides of the Atlantic.”

Over the past four years Covington has made several promotions to partner and made notable lateral additions to its London and Brussels teams including Robert Amaee from the SFO, an employment team led by Chris Walter, a competition team of Peter Camesasca, Lars Kjølbye and Damien Geradin in Brussels, Daniel Pavin for life sciences transactional, Steve Bond and Gaëtan Verhoosel for arbitration, Mike Kingston as head of the European corporate group, and Roger Enock as head of the London dispute resolution practice. Covington now has more than 100 fee earners in London and Brussels.

Covington is widely recognised as a leading life sciences international law firm with rankings in Chambers Global, Chambers UK, Chambers USA, Chambers Asia, Legal 500 UK, Legal 500 EMEA, Legal 500 USA and PLC, which voted Covington as the number one life sciences law firm in the world for four years in a row.
Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm, provides corporate, litigation, and regulatory expertise to enable clients to achieve their goals. Founded in 1919, the firm has more than 800 lawyers and offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC.