Wake Up Call: Three Firms Steer $11.6B Pfizer Deal for Biohaven

In today’s column, Ropes, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Skadden Arps are steering Pfizer’s agreement to pay $148.50 a share for a company that makes migraine treatments; elite litigation boutique Susman Godfrey announced 2022 winners of its awards for law school students of color; contracting platform SirionLabs raised $85 million in funding.

• Leading off, Ropes & Gray is advising Pfizer Inc. on the pharmaceutical giant’s $11.6 billion deal for Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., which makes therapies for migraines in adults. Sullivan & Cromwell is advising New Haven, Connecticut-based Biohaven on the transaction, expected to close in early 2023. Skadden Arps said via email that it’s counseling Centerview Partners, the financial adviser to Biohaven. (Businesswire.com)
• Legaltech company SirionLabs raised $85 million for its smart contracting platform in a funding round led by private equity firm Partners Group. (Grit Daily)
• Bethesda, Maryland-based firm Offit Kurman acquired Greensboro, North Carolina, corporate and business-focused boutique Hagan Barrett’s six partners and Greensboro office. Offit said it now has 18 offices and around 250 attorneys. (OffitKurman.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• In a recent poll, UK lawyers diverged on whether law firm Stephenson Harwood was justified in its decision to cut pay 20% for lawyers who want to work remotely full time. (Law.com International via Legaltech News)
• Lawyers for alleged victims of the Astroworld festival disaster in Houston claim at least 4,900 people were injured, of which 732 needed extensive medical treatment, in addition to 10 who died in the crowd crush. (Billboard)
• A prominent prosecutor is seeking the Republican nomination for South Dakota’s upcoming election for attorney general. That indicates the state’s impeached current attorney general Jason Ravnsborg may not seek election, a report says. (Argus Leader) A New Jersey lawyer got a three-month suspension for, among other things, calling an opposing lawyer a “scumbag.” (New York Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Latham & Watkins grabbed emerging companies’ attorney Eli Curi as a corporate partner in New York. He arrives after four years as a principal at Fenwick & West and earlier was chief legal and business affairs officer at advertising tech platform Operative Media; Foley & Lardner recruited former Securities and Enforcement Commission regional enforcement leader Jim Lundy in Chicago as a partner. He was recently partner at Faegre Drinker; former New York federal prosecutor Jaimie Nawaday joined Seward & Kissel in New York as partner and co-chair of its government enforcement and internal investigations practice. She arrives from Kelley Drye & Warren, where she was a partner; Jackson Lewis hired Cozen O’Connor litigator Jonathan Cavalier as a principal in Philadelphia. (JacksonLewis.com)
• Womble Bond Dickinson picked up two patent prosecutors as intellectual property of counsel, getting Kevin Davis from Polsinelli in Houston and Brandon Massengill from Kacvinsky Daisak Bluni in Raleigh, North Carolina; former McKool Smith intellectual property lawyer Chris Limpus joined Denver-based firm Martensen IP Law. (MartensenIP.com)
• Google’s former head of legal for Switzerland and Austria, Daniel Schoenberger, joined the Switzerland-based Web3 Foundation as general counsel and chief legal officer. (Coinpedia.org); Husch Blackwell hired former Sun Mar Healthcare associate general counsel Kevin Khachatryan as a health care litigation attorney in its L.A. office; Wizz Financial, a Dubai-based fintech company specializing in cross-border payments, said it hired White & Case financial services partner Adrianus Schoorl as its new general counsel and head of compliance and member of its senior management team. Schoorl’s LinkedIn profile says he was earlier head of Middle East financial services for Allen & Overy; biotech company Adimab named its longtime general counsel, Philip Chase, to take over as CEO. (Fierce Biotech)

Legal Education

• Elite Texas-based litigation boutique Susman Godfrey announced the 12 winners of its 2022 awards for law school students of color who have demonstrated academic excellence and overall achievement. The winners get $2,500 and an offer for a 2023 summer clerkship. The firm said the award, launched in 2021, aims to boost the pipeline of diverse attorneys interested in civil trial litigation. (Susman Godfrey)