Bill Mordan and the inhouse legal team at FTSE 100 pharmaceutical company Shire have – typically for the industry – been mainly occupied with patent litigation during 2017, but have also been involved in some high-profile regulatory and corporate work. On the patent dispute front, Mordan insists his intellectual property team, headed by Jim Harrington and David Banchik, is generating revenue for Shire, rather than acting as a cost centre. However, the most notable matter from 2017 was an antitrust dispute against rival Allergan. Shire alleged that Allergan broke antitrust laws to preserve its 90% share in Medicare prescription drug plans for its dry-eye drug Restasis. Mordan argues: ‘We are defending our right to introduce new products to a market in which they have a dominant share.’ Mordan is particularly proud of his team’s patent litigation pedigree and says: ‘We don’t lose many cases. It’s very hard to duplicate the science we develop. We’re not trying to boil the ocean; we’re looking for products to treat specific diseases.’ However, he insists: ‘Patent litigation is always the most aggressive, the riskiest and the most lucrative. We actively recover and license a lot of products. We generate revenue.’ Commercial counsel Jason Baranski and head litigation counsel Chris Allen are the standout individuals acting on the Allergan matter, according to Mordan. In terms of non-contentious work, the Shire team has spent a lot of time developing new manufacturing facilities. One such factory, based outside Dublin, has taken up a large chunk of time from Shire’s head of regulatory, David Altarac. Mordan says: ‘It’s going to be a premier bio-reactor facility. This will be best-inclass. When we build a facility we are constantly interacting with regulators. Every stage of development requires approval and visits by regulators. It can be an extremely complex and stressful process.’ Claire Debney, Shire’s well-respected director of legal operations, also has responsibility for the company’s in-house training programme, POD (people, operations and development). Meanwhile, Shire’s head of corporate, Jeff Prowda, doubles up as head of legal operations. Jennifer Moitoso, who is involved with Shire’s portfolio management, is well regarded internally, as is Kevin McGough, who handles much of Shire’s relationships with external law firms. Mordan says Shire has ‘all the technology you’d expect from a FTSE 100 company’, including contract management and asset management systems. However, he argues the most important aspect of the technology is having an internal system that allows these different innovations to speak the same language. ‘The infrastructure is not romantic or sexy,’ he says. ‘It’s nuts and bolts. But it’s where the real efficiency is right now.’