5 Questions with a Life Sciences Lawyer Archives

5 Questions with a Health Lawyer: Sharon Lamb

by McDermott Will & Emery | Mar 31, 2022 | Uncategorized

Sharon Lamb
Practice Focus Area: Health and Life Sciences
Office: London
Years at Firm: 4

What is your favorite part about practicing health and life sciences law at McDermott?
This is an easy question to answer! McDermott has a truly international health and life sciences practice with talented lawyers with deep expertise across all disciplines around the world– our lawyers truly works together as an integrated team and share a collective enthusiasm and energy for advising our international clients in a way that helps them move their businesses forward. I feel really privileged to work with such dedicated and talented lawyers. Our practice is both regulatory and transactional, meaning we support our clients on cross border investments and acquisitions to expand their businesses but also on strategic and regulatory issues, such as licensing, collaborations, and market access. The pandemic has been challenging on many levels – working remotely has been just one part of that. But, on the other hand, the move to virtual meetings and ease of zoom calling has created even more cohesion across our international offices.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?
Our health and life sciences clients have been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 – whether that be providing care to patients or developing drugs and devices such as vaccines, and diagnostics. Many [...]

Continue Reading

5 Questions with a Life Sciences Lawyer: Brian Malkin

by McDermott Will & Emery | Dec 28, 2021 | Uncategorized

Brian Malkin
Practice Focus Area: FDA (Health Industry Advisory)
Office: Washington, D.C.
Years at Firm: 1+

What is your favorite part about practicing life sciences law at McDermott?
I joined McDermott because of the depth of expertise in its life science practice, which I had been missing at other specialty or large law firms. The depth of expertise allows us to work collaboratively for clients, each with different disciplines and strengths. My favorite parts of practice at McDermott are the opportunities for us to work in cross-collaborations, because it allows us each to offer input and provide added value to our clients from these different perspectives without the need to form working groups from multiple firms.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?
My practice in FDA and IP law focuses primarily on pharmaceutical and biological product development and life cycle intellectual property protection. While the COVID pandemic has been detrimental in many aspects, in some sense it has opened an opportunity for increased contact with the agency for new product development, particularly for products to treat COVID, rare or orphan diseases and other unmet needs.

I particularly enjoy helping companies have successful meetings with FDA to obtain valuable product development input, as well as address any challenges that come up during the way. At the same time, [...]

Continue Reading

5 Questions with a Life Sciences Lawyer: Doug Carsten

by McDermott Will & Emery | Nov 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

Doug H. Carsten
Practice Focus Area: Patient Litigation
Office: Orange County
Years at Firm: Joined in March 2021

What is your favorite part about practicing life sciences law at McDermott?
I love working with the incredibly talented partners and associates in McDermott Will & Emery’s life sciences group. The level of disparate practice group talent here is remarkable, and I am so excited to collaborate with this team to help our fantastic life sciences clients.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?
Biggest opportunity: To work with our life sciences team!
Seriously, the biggest opportunity and challenge facing our life sciences clients are the same – the current pandemic landscape. As an opportunity, life sciences companies have never before been so much in the spotlight and viewed as a potential answer to the COVID-19 virus. On the other hand, the very nature of the pandemic has deeply affected and really changed how life sciences – and all companies – conduct business.

What kind of client work gets you most excited when it comes across your desk?
My true love is trying cases. It doesn’t matter what the issue is – if there is a trial involved, I am excited. Secondarily, I really enjoy unpacking complex fact patterns and developing strategies that the client hadn’t thought of to get around particular challenges.

What [...]

Continue Reading

read more

5 Questions with a Health Lawyer: Gregory E. Fosheim

by McDermott Will & Emery | Apr 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
Gregory Fosheim, JD, MPH
Practice Focus Area: Healthcare and Life Sciences
Office: Chicago, IL
Time at Firm: 2.5 years

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare and/or life sciences law at McDermott?
There’s a reason why everyone answers this question with “the people.” The cadre of attorney and business professionals I have the privilege of working with every day is truly extraordinary, each of whom is exceedingly generous with their time and support, despite overwhelming workloads themselves. Everyone understands the healthcare and life sciences landscape and has an unapologetic passion toward doing impeccable work with the utmost professionalism and a healthy dose of humor and humility. It felt like I was given a parachute on my first day that allowed me to take leaps of faith to expand my practice into new areas of focus with the reassurance of a soft landing if I had any questions or challenges. Everyone is an integral member of the team and it shows.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?
We have an exhausted industry caring for an exhausted nation. The challenges today are the same challenges that the American healthcare system has had for decades: How to innovate? How to differentiate? How to collaborate? Now that we are more than a year into the global COVID-19 pandemic, [...]

Continue Reading

read more

Five Questions with a Life Sciences Lawyer: Nora Klein

by McDermott Will & Emery | Aug 29, 2019 | Uncategorized
Nora Klein
Associate
Office: Chicago
Years at Firm: 2

What is an interesting fact about yourself that others may not know?

I played college golf at University of Illinois and in September 2019 I will be competing in the United States Women’s Mid-Amateur National Championship in Flagstaff Arizona. This will be the 33rd annually national championship for female golfers over 25 years old. The United States Golf Association runs 16 National Championships a year and to be able to play in one is every golfer’s dream. I feel so grateful to work at a place that quite literally supports me on and off the golf course.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?

The biggest challenge for our clients is also the biggest opportunity – how to grow in the revolutionary and highly profitable yet competitive life sciences industry, which is continuously expanding into new and often groundbreaking subsectors. Navigating these issues makes working at McDermott an enjoyable challenge. We not only need to assist our clients in finding innovative ways to grow their enterprises and remain compliant with healthcare rules and regulations, but also provide thoughtful, forward-looking solutions and plans that allow them to grow as these new subsectors emerge.

(more…)

read more