February 7, 2011
THE RECORDER
By Petra Pasternak
SAN FRANCISCO – Morrison & Foerster has recruited long-time Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati life science partner Michael O’Donnell.
He joined Friday.
MoFo is eager to grow its corporate practice nationally, particularly in cleantech, health care, financial services, banking and life sciences. “Michael O’Donnell was at the very top of that list,” MoFo business department co-Chairwoman Susan Mac Cormac said, adding that O’Donnell was an attractive candidate in part because of his company-side clients, which include Pfizer Inc., GSK, Amgen Inc., Schering-Plough Corp. and his contacts and clients on the investor side. O’Donnell has also represented startups through IPO, among them Illumina Inc., Pain Therapeutics Inc., Cytokinetics Inc. and NeurogesX.
MoFo has 190 life sciences lawyers, including 55 transactional attorneys, Mac Cormac said.
For O’Donnell, it’s the first lateral move of his career since 1990, when he briefly joined then-Heller Ehrman as partner. He joined Wilson Sonsini in 1983 as a first-year associate. O’Donnell said he wasn’t looking to leave Wilson, but that MoFo’s collaborative approach to client services and the firm’s international reach were a draw. MoFo’s offices in Japan, China and London present his small company clients a chance to make connections with bigger international pharma companies.
O’Donnell will serve as head of corporate life sciences on the West Coast.
Southern California legal recruiter Larry Watanabe brokered the deal.