(L-R): William Whelan of Mintz Levin Cohen Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, Christian Plaza of Cooley, Ryan Murr of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Rebecca Wood of Sidley Austin. Courtesy photos

When it comes to weathering the COVID-19 pandemics, law firms with a strong life sciences practice might be in a better position than most. 

Interviews with several attorneys in the life sciences space show that while business has been augmented and the nature of questions from clients altered, those in the practice see a busy 2020 despite the difficulties created by the presence of COVID-19. 

"March was my busiest in about a decade," Ryan Murr, San Francisco-based partner in the corporate transactions department practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said. "And I'm hearing from others that the life sciences practices remain robust."

Murr said he puts the work he is doing for his life science clients into three buckets. 

"First, it's the same sort of COVID-19 questions that all deal lawyers are dealing with: SEC disclosures, CARES Act loans and even essential business classification," he said. "Second is COVID-19 questions specific to the life sciences industry. Like how a company could pivot to conduct trials related to COVID-19. Third is the deal-related work, and that has not slowed down either."

Murr conceded that many of the deals that closed in March were already in the pipeline. But he says he doesn't believe, at least with regard to life science-related deals, that deal flow would crash the way it has in some other industries. 

"People are still trying to get deals done," he said. 

Rebecca "Becky" Wood, leader of Sidley Austin's food, drug, and medical device regulatory practice and the firm's Washington, D.C., health care and Food and Drug Administration group, said her people have been "busier than ever" since the impact of COVID-19 started surfacing. 

"Not only do we have the freight for FDA-regulated companies, but now we have a huge influx of questions about being part of the solution to the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.

Wood, a former chief counsel to the FDA, said she expects the sort of advice and counsel her clients need to evolve as the pandemic itself does. 

"We are seeing that the questions the clients have follow the need for the marketplace," Wood said. "Initially, there were a lot of PPE-related questions. Then we will move into diagnostics. Ultimately, there will be questions about development of a vaccine."

She said at this point, her team is fielding questions around how life science companies can help combat COVID-19. 

"We are seeing a groundswell of interest from established companies in the life sciences area to do their part to offer solutions to their communities," she said.

Wood said that has often taken the form of questions around what a company can do to pivot production over to items such as masks, face shields and coverings. 

As companies start to ramp up questions around diagnostics, Wood said the consistent and frequent updates by the FDA have been key to her practice and the administration's ability to adapt to the new COVID-19-born reality will play a large role in what she is able to tell her clients. 

"If you look at the last couple of years, the FDA has had high watermarks using the Cures Act when it comes to bringing products to the market more quickly than normal," Wood said. "I think the FDA will continue to be accessible and responsive."

William "Bill" Whelan, a member and co-chairman of the life sciences practice at Mintz Levin Cohen Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, said deal volume in March in the life sciences space was quite strong, but he isn't sure it will stay that way. 

"I would say March, because many deals were already in process, they pretty much continued through the month," he said. "Moving forward, I see a more measured approach for deals."

Whelan said that, like Wood, he is still dealing with the "normal" questions that come out of a life sciences client while also fielding those on the CARES Act, the Small Business Administration and the Paycheck Protection Program. 

He credits the close working relationships between the various practice areas at Mintz as the reason that this situation, with its various moving parts and cross-practice knowledge requirement, is manageable. 

"We have an internal working group that has people from litigation, health care, technology, real estate," he said. "We like working on issues that are important and pressing for the client, but we are also learning new material."

Christian Plaza, a Washington, D.C.-based life sciences partner for Cooley, said learning that new material and advising clients on it has kept his team active over the past six weeks, adding to what was already a strong first quarter for the firm. 

"The partnering practice has been working around the clock on both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19-related matters," Plaza said. "Transactions had their busiest month in March."

He, like the others interviewed for this piece, said the nature of the work he and his team is doing has changed somewhat. While Plaza said deal work was strong in the first quarter, he does expect that to slow down somewhat in the coming months, but certainly not stop. 

"As capital becomes harder to get, the companies are turning to private markets for capital," Plaza said. "You will see some people pull back on the IPO front and people will slow down some of their dealmaking."

Plaza said the slowdown in deals would partially be due to more difficulty in obtaining credit, but like other industries, it could also be hampered by companies having to learn new ways to close deals when they can't be in the same room. 

"Bankers will need to figure out how to do remote drafting sessions and the like. It will slow down, but people will find a way," he said.

Plaza said that while he and his team have been working with private equity companies on understanding the rules around the PPP and the CARES Act, he said that the companies he is working with have not pinned their hopes of survival on getting those funds. 

"That has gotten the most attention the last couple of weeks," Plaza said of the government funds made available to small businesses, but not necessarily to private equity portfolio companies. "The bigger issue is really the necessity issue."

But Plaza feels that companies in the life sciences realm, already doing important, potentially lifesaving work, are in a good position to weather the coming months and still get their products to market. 

"I'm pretty optimistic about the life sciences industry," Plaza said. "These companies are working on critically important things and there is a renewed understanding of their importance and how they can help us. There will be some hiccups, but we are already seeing some companies come out of it. Clinical trials are starting up again in China."

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