Squire Patton Boggs Hires IP Partners from Morrison & Foerster

Squire Patton Boggs has added two new partners from Morrison & Foerster with a focus on pharmaceutical companies’ intellectual property fights, as the national debate over drug prices heats up.

David Manspeizer, who is based in New York, and Greg Chopskie, who is based in San Francisco, started April 29 as partners in the firm’s IP and technology practice, which has added several laterals over the last year.

The two new hires had been approached by other firms, said Chopskie. But Squire Patton Boggs proved to be the clear choice, the pair said in a joint interview.

“Everything about the firm seems right to us,” said Manspeizer. “We love the culture here.”

The lawyers often handle pharma brand versus brand IP litigation, as well as fights against generic drug manufacturers—which Manspeizer said have been given unfair advantages in recent years.

This has occurred as public ire has grown over drug price-gauging by people such as Martin Shkreli, the so-called “Pharma Bro.”

“There’s been a ton of public pressure and focus on pricing,” said Manspeizer.

Manspeizer and Chopskie also noted that they made the jump to Squire Patton Boggs within a week of four new bills being introduced in Congress that touch on drug pricing and regulatory issues.

Manspeizer, formerly a vice president and associate general counsel with former pharma giant Wyeth, now part of Pfizer, represents top pharma and biotechnology companies in complex patent matters, including in infringement, counseling and due diligence matters.

Chopskie also has worked in-house at pharma companies, including stints with Wyeth, Shionogi Inc., Pfizer, and Gilead Sciences, Inc. He has in particular focused on the Hatch-Waxman Act, a law that cleared the way for the manufacture of more generic drugs.

“David and Greg add unique skill sets and experience to our best-in-class life and health sciences IP practice,” said David Elkins, Squire Patton Boggs global IP&T Practice chair in an announcement. “We already had strong patent and litigation practices in this area, but David and Greg bridge the two.”

Over the past year, Squire Patton Boggs has added others to its IP practice, including partners Frank Bernstein, Vid Bhakar and Ronald Lemieux, who joined the firm’s Palo Alto office from the IP boutique Singularity LLP. The firm also added life sciences partner Todd Lorenz in San Francisco, who came from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.