Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has hired a seven-lawyer healthcare regulatory team in Washington DC and Boston, as it moves to become a top life sciences law firm. 

The group includes three partners: Georgia Ravitz, who previously led Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s FDA regulatory practice and has joined in Washington DC, and Amy Joseph and Jeremy Sherer, who have come aboard in Boston from health law regulatory boutique Hooper Lundy & Bookman. 

Also moving over are Wilson Sonsini senior counsel Shari Fleishman Esfahani and Scott Cohn, who have joined Orrick as counsel. 

The team’s hire continues the rapid build out of Orrick’s life sciences and healthtech platform, which has more than quadrupled in size in the past five years to 53 partners, the firm said. Its lawyers work with more than 600 life sciences clients, including pharmaceutical giants like Bayer and Johnson & Johnson, biotech companies like Twist Bioscience and healthcare companies including Clover Health. 

“The growth of our life sciences and healthtech platform has outpaced even our most ambitious goals, with the sector now comprising 20% of our corporate, IP litigation and commercial/products liability litigation practices,” said Thora Johnson, a privacy advisor and co-leader of Orrick’s life sciences and healthtech initiative. “We’re excited to build out a world-class regulatory practice, covering FDA, healthcare, privacy, antitrust and strategic partnerships.”

The team’s regulatory expertise is a boon for Orrick given the uncertainty brought about by last month’s decision by the US Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended the practice of judicial deference to regulatory agencies in interpreting statutes. The seemingly technical change in how agencies function could have a significant impact on employers and the workforce, ranging from retirement planning and healthcare to hiring practices. 

“Regulatory uncertainty is a top concern of both high-growth disruptors and global leaders in life sciences and healthtech, as in all of the sectors on which Orrick focuses – and AI-driven innovation is only heightening this focus,” said Orrick chair Mitch Zuklie. “Combining this seven-lawyer team with our privacy practice, we now offer destination-quality regulatory solutions for our portfolio of clients in life sciences and healthtech.”

Ravitz advises healthcare and consumer products clients on the FDA’s regulation of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food and agribusiness and emerging healthtech innovations. She joined Wilson Sonsini in 2019 from ArentFox, where she headed the firm’s consumer product safety practice.

Meantime Joseph counsels healthcare companies on regulatory and transactional matters, including compliance with federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws, and patient privacy laws. 

Sherer previously served as the co-chair of Hooper Lundy’s digital health practice. He counsels healthcare clients on establishing and scaling multi-state virtual care delivery models, and navigating the regulatory issues that arise in digital health ventures.

Orrick also boosted its life sciences offering in New York in March with the hire of leading IP litigator Irena Royzman from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, where she headed the life sciences team. 

Foley & Lardner also announced earlier this week that it had hired three partners from K&L Gates to expand its healthcare and life sciences sector team and open a new office in Raleigh, North Carolina.