Choate, Hall & Stewart

Adam Bookbinder

Adam Bookbinder, co-chair of Choate’s Government Enforcement & Compliance Group, is an experienced trial attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney who helps clients effectively address and mitigate a wide range of high-level enterprise risks. Having tried more than 25 jury trials to verdict, he is equally comfortable litigating in federal and state court, guiding clients through government investigations, and advising on cybersecurity, data privacy, and cyber incident response. In white collar defense and internal and government investigations, Adam represents institutional clients, charged defendants, potential criminal targets, and witnesses in federal and state investigations and prosecutions around the country. He represents corporations and individuals in wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, healthcare, computer network intrusion, environmental crime, and criminal tax prosecutions and investigations. He has also briefed and argued dozens of appeals in state and federal courts of appeal. Adam advises clients on a wide range of cybersecurity and data privacy issues. He counsels clients on responding to cybersecurity incidents, conducting internal investigations and cybersecurity reviews, preparing incident response plans, complying with U.S. data privacy laws and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), interfacing with law enforcement agencies, and increasing preparedness to address national security cyber issues. He also defends clients in class action data privacy and data misuse litigation. Adam served 18 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He was chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Cybercrime Unit, where he supervised a unit responsible for the investigation and prosecution of computer and intellectual property crime, including computer intrusions, data breaches, network attacks, theft of trade secrets, copyright and trademark infringement, and online fraud. In this role, Adam worked with the FBI, Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify and respond to priority cybercrime threats. He was also chosen as the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s National Security Cyber Specialist, investigating cybercrime committed by nation-states and hackers affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, and serving as the U.S. Attorney’s Office liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division for cyber matters. Adam also served in the office’s Economic Crimes Unit, and he led financial fraud, securities fraud and healthcare fraud investigations, prosecutions, and trials throughout his tenure in the office. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Adam was an Assistant District Attorney in the Essex County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts and a law clerk for the Honorable Stephen Trott, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Adam’s clients include Partners Healthcare, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Charles River Laboratories, and Leap Therapeutics.

Alison Reif

Alison Reif provides practical and efficient business-oriented counseling and advice on managing all aspects of a company’s relationship with its employees. This includes providing counsel on hiring and employment agreements, terminations and RIFs, disability and leave issues, wage and hour compliance and audits, harassment investigations, employment and severance agreements, employee handbooks and policies, non-competition, and other post-employment restrictions, independent contractor arrangements, employee classifications, and virtually all other issues facing modern employers. A seasoned negotiator, Alison specializes in finding workable, real world solutions to accomplish business objectives, avoid legal liability, and remain consistent with a company’s culture. She has a nationwide practice, with a sweet spot of mid-sized companies. She is routinely called on to advise international companies, particularly in the United Kingdom and Canada, who are starting operations in the United States and require assistance in navigating local labor laws. She also serves as counsel to a number of independent schools in the New England area. Alison has successfully represented companies in more than fifty lawsuits brought by their employees, involving a wide variety of claims. Alison is a member of Choate’s Executive Committee.

Anita Spieth

Anita Spieth, co-chair of Choate’s IP Litigation Group, has more than 10 years of experience representing life sciences and technology companies in high stakes patent infringement, trade secrets, and other complex IP litigation. She provides an effective and user-friendly case management approach and counsels clients on litigation strategy to achieve their goals. She also represents clients in connection with inter partes review proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board, as well as in copyright issues (particularly related to software and artificial intelligence) and trade secret disputes. Anita makes her clients’ lives easier by taking tasks off of their plates and making their worries her own. She begins her work by gaining a thorough understanding of the internal workflow of her clients so that her work product is immediately useful and does not require additional cycles. She speaks in clear and plain terms that clients and – importantly – judges and juries can understand. Anita has developed a global strategy to help clients manage risk and protect US intellectual property while related cases proceed internationally, including directing EPO strategy and various litigations throughout the world. Anita’s team at Choate has experience mustering and managing various international law firms to ensure that international positions are consistent with those taken in the U.S. Anita’s clients include Takeda, Biogen, EMC/Dell, Alarm.com, and Pegasystems.

Brenda Herschbach Jarrell

Dr. Brenda Herschbach Jarrell, chair of Choate’s Life Sciences Group, is described by clients as an IP lawyer with keen business savvy. Her extensive technical credentials make her well-versed in a wide variety of technologies in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical industries. She represents companies and institutions at all stages of the life sciences business lifecycle, as well as those who invest in them, guiding IP protection and competitive positioning strategies, negotiating strategic transactions, and providing creative solutions to IP and technology-related challenges. Throughout her career, Brenda has advised multiple clients from Series A through their eventual IPOs. As one of the foremost respected IP strategists in the country, Brenda is routinely awarded the recognition of “Attorney of the Year” by several respected rankings providers across a variety of categories. Some of her clients include Adimab, Aleta Biotherapeutics, Angion Biomedica Corp., Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Atlas Venture, Base Genomic, Biogen, BioNTech, Casma Therapeutics, Celsius Therapeutics, Eirion Therapeutics, FogPharma, FORMA Therapeutics, Gilead, Ginkgo BioWorks, Kernal Biologics, LogicBio Therapeutics, Mereo BioPharma, Olema Pharmaceuticals, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, ReNetX Bio, Scipher Medicine Corporation, STIMIT Corporation, Syros Pharmaceuticals, Third Rock Ventures, WAVE Life Sciences, and Venrock. Brenda is a member of Choate’s Executive Committee.

Brian Goldstein

Brian Goldstein, co-chair of Choate’s Business & Technology Practice Group, has more than 30 years of experience advising venture capital and growth equity investors and innovative, high-growth companies in health IT, healthcare services, life sciences, and medical device industries, on their most important transactions and helping them to increase the returns on their investments. Brian regularly advises on financings, strategic partnerships and licensing agreements, mergers and acquisitions, and general business counseling. His international practice includes cross-border financings and acquisitions, as well as advice on other U.S.-based activities, for companies headquartered or with significant operations in the United Kingdom/Ireland, Europe, and Israel. Brian previously served as Assistant General Counsel at Groundwater Technology, Inc., where he handled SEC reporting; acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures; and the sale of a controlling interest of the company to Fluor Daniel. Brian has advised sophisticated investment funds and globally-recognized investors and companies, including Answers Corp (WebCollage), Bain Capital Life Sciences, Perceptive Advisors (via Perceptive Xontogeny), Shire, and Transformation Capital.

Charles Lyon

Dr. Charles Lyon, co-chair of Choate’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, provides strategic insight to investors and life sciences companies, both VC-backed and publicly-traded, to help them maximize the value of their investments in intellectual property by condensing complex data into actionable insights. Through hundreds of due diligence and intellectual property analysis projects, Charles has helped clients to understand, evaluate, and respond to IP issues that arise in the context of business transactions or during the research and development of new products and technologies. His insights have helped clients to identify “hot” areas in the life sciences landscape which have driven their strategic investment decisions – notably in the areas of immuno-oncology, gene therapy, gene editing, and cell therapy. He also routinely provides advice and opinions regarding freedom-to-operate and intellectual property landscape issues to assist with R&D decisions and in the context of pre-litigation disputes including Hatch-Waxman and Biosimilar litigation. Charles has served investor clients including Bain Capital, Deerfield Management, 5AM Ventures, Third Rock Ventures, Venrock, Perceptive Advisors, and Broadview Ventures and life sciences companies including Takeda, Gilead, Biogen, GEMoaB, Editas Medicine, and Akouos.

Christine Savage

Christine Savage, co-chair of Choate’s Healthcare Group and a member of the Government Enforcement and Compliance Group, regularly collaborates with a diverse range of healthcare services and life sciences companies to help them satisfy compliance obligations, protect reputations, deliver value, and ultimately facilitate their ability to focus on their patients or customers. Christine’s 25 years of experience working internal investigations and managing government inquiries related to healthcare fraud help inform her approach to compliance and risk management projects. As one of the few subject matter experts in the country, Christine is routinely called on to assist academic and clinical research institutions at all stages of the research cycle, from proposal to final close out. She provides legal counsel on contracting, ethical and human subjects protection oversight, effort reporting, and foreign influence issues, and helps craft investigative or disclosure plans in the face of identified problems or concerns. She had led multiple internal reviews related to conflicts of interest, foreign influence, and grants management concerns and resolved material findings with appropriate government agencies including NIH, NSF, OIG and DOJ. Her work includes helping emerging life sciences companies develop and implement key compliance initiatives to put them on the right footing once they have a viable commercial product. She also collaborates with more established pharma and device companies to assess legal risks related to promotional activities, foundation and charity relationships, Open Payments requirements, and patient assistance programs.

David Attisani

David Attisani, a partner in Choate’s top-ranked Insurance & Reinsurance Group (#1 reinsurance and litigation firm according to Reactions and highly rated by Legal 500), assists insurers and reinsurers in problem-solving, shaping, and winning high profile disputes. Using the thoroughly personal and intense service style his clients value, David also provides evaluations of coverage, wordings advice, and market intelligence. He has served as lead counsel with respect to the following industry-significant claims: COVID-19 BI and WC; NFL CTE; the California wildfires; 9/11 (WTC); “Obamacare”; life rate increase disputes; spousal continuation problems; Superstorm Sandy; Hurricanes Wilma, Katrina, Harvey; the Puerto Rico Hurricanes (Maria/Irma); the Las Vegas shooting; the “Big Dig” Tunnel Collapse; NY “reviver” molestation claims; Archdiocese of L.A., Society of Jesus, and other clergy abuse claims; Boy Scouts of America and school-related sex abuse problems; J&J talc exposures; the Nikita Levy/ Johns Hopkins “rogue” doctor case; and Sphere Drake. David’s clients include global insurers and reinsurers Swiss Re, Munich Re, Endurance/Sompo, Chubb, Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Berkley, Partner Re, The Andover Companies, Aeolus, Symetra, and MIIA.

J.P. Jaillet

J.P. Jaillet, chair of Choate’s Insurance & Reinsurance Group, provides clients with a combination of successful trial results in big-ticket coverage disputes and expertise of the industry and its arbitrators. J.P. routinely represents large insurers, reinsurers, private equity firms, and other companies in complex business and coverage disputes, including reinsurance arbitration. J.P.’s clients include Liberty Mutual, Swiss Re, Munich Re, Sompo, Chubb, Berkley, and General Electric. J.P. is the co-chair of Choate’s Hiring Committee, where he helps lead firm-wide recruitment and summer associate talent development.

Joan Lukey

For more than thirty years, Joan Lukey has tried complex business litigation in state and federal courts nationwide. She has tried approximately 100 jury trials and a myriad of bench trials and arbitrations in all aspects of business disputes. In addition, she is an accomplished appellate lawyer, having argued approximately 60 federal and state appeals. For the past two years, she has been honored by Benchmark as one of the top 10 female litigators nationally. Since 1983, Joan has been selected by her peers for each edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of business, bet-the-company, commercial, personal injury, employment and First Amendment litigation. She has also been routinely recognized for the last several years in Chambers USA and Chambers Global as a Band One Litigator. Joan is a past President of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, the first woman ever to hold this position. Before joining Choate in 2014, she was a partner at Ropes & Gray in the Complex Business Litigation Practice Group from 2008 until 2014, after almost thirty years as a partner at WilmerHale. She has served twice as a Massachusetts Special Assistant Attorney General and has written extensively on issues of Gubernatorial and Presidential Executive Privilege.

John Ventola

John Ventola, co-chair of Choate’s Finance and Restructuring Group, has more than 25 years of experience representing banks, finance companies, hedge funds, and distressed investors and helping guide them through a wide range of complex lending and corporate restructuring issues, including Chapter 11 cases and out-of-court workouts. John is a Fellow of the prestigious American College of Bankruptcy and is a member of Choate’s Executive Committee. John’s lending experience includes representing financial institutions in complex, multi-tranche financial transactions, including asset based, cash flow, Term B, second-lien, DIP and mezzanine loans and preferred stock, and other junior capital investments. John also has deep restructuring experience, having practiced extensively in bankruptcy courts across the country in connection with a range of issues, including cash collateral disputes, equitable subordination and recharacterization, Section 363 sales, and contested plans of reorganization. He has particularly extensive experience in retail finance and other asset-based lending transactions and the heavily-negotiated intercreditor arrangements that are often the key element in successfully completing those financing arrangements. John also frequently works with alternative investors, including private equity sponsors and hedge funds, seeking to identify and acquire distressed companies or assets. John’s clients include Callodine Commercial Finance, SLR Credit Solutions, PNC Retail Finance, B. Riley Financial, Second Avenue Capital Partners, Wells Fargo, Bank of America Business Capital, and Great American Capital Partners.

John Pitfield

John Pitfield, co-chair of Choate’s Business & Technology Group, helps private equity and growth equity clients to maximize the value of their transactions and strategic initiatives. John excels in leading teams in mergers and acquisitions and public and private debt and equity offerings, bringing a unique business judgment to these matters. He regularly advises public companies on a range of disclosure, governance, and board level matters. Additionally, John has years of experience working with Canadian companies on a wide range of matters. A gifted collaborator, John utilizes Choate’s superior resources and expertise in the areas of intellectual property and healthcare to provide exceptional service to clients in the life sciences and health services industries. John’s clients include a range of investors and operating companies – particularly in the health services, life sciences, and technology, media, and telecom sectors – including Bain Capital, Candescent Partners, Summit Partners, Haemonetics, Pegasystems, and Forrester Research.

Kevin Finnerty

Kevin Finnerty represents global insurers and reinsurers in significant coverage disputes, and helps financial services companies, biotech companies, and other industry-leading companies to resolve complex commercial litigation successfully and efficiently. He has handled cases in a variety of state and federal courts, and in arbitration. In 2017, Kevin served as a Special Assistant District Attorney with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Kevin’s clients have included Starr Insurance Companies, John Hancock Financial, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Louis Marett

Louis Marett, chair of Choate’s Tax Practice Group, helps private equity funds and their portfolio companies to minimize their tax burdens in connection with mergers and acquisitions and fund formations. Known for meticulous preparation and devising creative approaches to structuring and closing deals, he has advised clients on hundreds of major transactions. Louis’ clients include many private equity funds, such as BV, Candescent, Century, Columbia Capital, Cove Hill, Ecosystems, Essex-Woodlands, Falcon, Great Hill, HarbourVest, M/C Partners, New Heritage, Riverside, Serent Capital, Silversmith, Spectrum, Summit, Surveyor, Sverica, Symmetric, Tower Arch, Turn/River, Windjammer, and XPV.

Olivier Léger

Olivier Léger advises PE fund sponsors on U.S. tax matters at all stages of their operations, with a dual focus on fund formation and portfolio company acquisitions and divestitures. On the fund formation front, Olivier’s contribution to VC funds, buyout funds, funds-of-funds, and other PE fund clients begins with providing structuring advice to minimize the tax burden to the various fund constituents. In implementing the desired structure, and negotiating and drafting fund documents, Olivier provides clear and commercial solutions that allow maximum flexibility to execute on deal opportunities and facilitate the day-to-day operation and administration of the fund vehicles. Olivier also advises fund sponsors with respect to GP matters, secondary transfers, bridge financings, as well as isolated transactions such as GP sponsored secondaries (fund recaps) and the sale of management company interests. Separately, Olivier regularly represents funds-of-funds in connection with their primary and secondary investments in other funds. On the transactional front, Olivier advises PE fund sponsors on structuring leveraged buyouts and other M&A transactions in a tax-efficient manner, and planning for post-closing operation of the businesses so as to maximize available tax savings. Olivier also regularly advises closely held corporations and their individual shareholders with respect to various U.S. tax matters, including QSBS. In addition, Olivier advises public and privately owned companies with respect to taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, credit facility arrangements, and post-transactional integration, as well as inbound and outbound transactions. Olivier was recognized by The Legal 500 as “a name to note in the funds space.” Olivier’s clients include TrueBridge Capital, XPV Water Partners, Century Partners, Amplify Partners, SKK Group, Battery Global Advisors, Long Ridge Equity Partners, I-Qu, Horsley Bridge Partners, Riverside Partners, Great Hill Partners, QuestMarkPartners, Right Networks, Sverica Capital Management, Tribeca Holdings, Candescent Partners, and Marcy Venture Partners, LLC.

Robert Kole

Rob Kole helps domestic and foreign insurers and reinsurers to achieve successful outcomes in some of the most significant, cutting edge issues affecting them, including opioids, mass shootings, terrorism, asbestos, environmental, food contamination, oil and gas, catastrophic property damage, and catastrophe bonds. Clients value the experience he brings in providing insurance and reinsurance advice, coverage opinions, litigation representation, arbitration guidance, and appellate work. Rob has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First, Second, Fifth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits as well as the Connecticut Supreme Court and the California Court of Appeals in connection with insurance and reinsurance disputes. He has successfully litigated in the trial court, and affirmed on appeal, two of the earliest opioid coverage decisions in the U.S.: Travelers v. Anda (11th Circuit) and Travelers v. Actavis (California Court of Appeals); successfully litigated an issue of first impression in the Connecticut Supreme Court regarding insurance coverage for crumbling home foundations (Karas v. Liberty Mutual; Vera v. Liberty Mutual); successfully litigated in the trial court, and affirmed on appeal, the first dispute in the U.S. concerning coverage under catastrophe bonds (Mariah Re); and successfully arbitrated dozens of reinsurance disputes on behalf of ceding companies and reinsurers A number of Rob’s clients cannot be disclosed publicly due to the confidential nature of the proceedings. However, past or current clients in public matters include Liberty Mutual, Travelers, St. Paul, Swiss Re, Hartford, and American Family Insurance. Rob is a member of Choate’s Executive Committee.

Sean Monahan

Sean Monahan, co-chair of Choate’s Finance & Restructuring Group, brings depth of experience and a business-oriented outlook to one of the preeminent sports law practices in the United States. He represents major financial institutions and teams in a range of high profile, complex commercial financing transactions. Sean advises clients with team loans, stadium construction loans, securitizations, investment banking transactions, and general business matters involving member clubs of Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, and Minor League Baseball, as well as major college conferences. He has long-standing relationships with key personnel at leagues, teams, and financial institutions and his extensive knowledge of ownership and debt and securitization rules, media contracts, and collective bargaining agreements enables him to resolve even the most challenging issues for his clients. Sean also represents banks and institutional investors in a full range of financings, including asset-based and cash flow financings. Sean’s clients include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase Bank, U.S. Bank, Citibank, Truist Bank, PNC Bank, and John Hancock.

Tobin Sullivan

Tobin Sullivan is a versatile corporate and securities attorney who counsels growth equity and venture capital investors and growing life sciences and technology companies, ranging from start-ups to pre-IPO companies to global public companies, on a wide range of transactional and corporate law matters. With extensive experience in venture capital and late-stage, cross-over financings for life sciences, biotech and healthIT companies, he is described by clients as a highly responsive, strategic thinker who balances his strong market knowledge with practical business advice. Tobin provides general corporate guidance on a variety of business matters, including venture capital and growth equity financings, national and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance matters, public company reporting, and SEC compliance. His clients have included Bain Capital Life Sciences, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sectoral Asset Management, Transformation Capital, Pegasystems, Forrester Research, Riverside Partners, Summit Partners, and M/C Partners.

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