Boston-based law firm Foley Hoag has put the finishing touches to a team hire from rival Cooley to bolster its life sciences and IP offerings.

The all-female team is led by partner Amy Baker Mandragouras, who moved over from Cooley in August, and includes counsel Erika Wallace and Maya Elbert, an associate, a patent agent and a number of patent administrative professionals who have since joined the firm. 

Technology specialist Lillian Schmaltz has also joined the group; she was previously a graduate research and teaching assistant at the University of Texas. All the team members are based in Boston except Elbert, who will work out of Foley’s New York offices.  

“Our addition of Amy’s team bolsters Foley Hoag’s position in the life sciences and strengthens our ability to provide strategic IP counselling in this industry,” said Jeffrey Quillen, partner and co-chair of the firm’s life sciences industry group. “We look forward to collaborating with this team to drive success in this complex and fast-moving sector.” 

A life sciences patent lawyer, Mandragouras has more than three decades of experience in developing and implementing IP strategies, particularly in the biologics field. She began her legal career at IP boutique Lahive & Cockfield, where she rose to become the first woman chair of its executive committee and later led the firm’s combination with Nelson Mullins. She then spent more than a decade at Nelson Mullins before joining Cooley in 2021. 

Meantime Wallace and Elbert bring nearly two decades of experience in strategic counselling and management of worldwide biotechnology patent portfolios, as well as scientific expertise in the life sciences arena.

Mandragouras said the team had been drawn to Foley “not only by its strength in life sciences and intellectual property, but also by its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Foley Hoag’s life sciences industry group represents more than 2,000 public and private clients across the industry, from biotechnology and pharmaceuticals to medical device and healthcare services.

The completion of the team’s move follows Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer hiring a co-leader of Foley Hoag’s life sciences industry group, Hemmie Chang, in Boston last month to open an office in the city. 

A number of other law firms have looked to Boston recently in light of its status as a premier hub for life sciences, including Washington DC-based Covington & Burling, which hired the former chair of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo’s corporate practice to open there in April.

Other US firms launching in Boston over the past few years include Barnes & Thornburg, Fox Rothschild and Husch Blackwell. UK firms Clyde & Co and Allen & Overy have also set up shop there, the latter after hiring a five-strong IP litigation team from Goodwin Procter.