July 25, 2014
THE RECORDER
By David Ruiz
SAN FRANCISCO – Corporate and transactional partner Shane Albright is moving his life sciences practice from Hogan Lovells’ Palo Alto office to DLA Piper.
DLA Piper confirmed the move Thursday. Albright, who is still listed on the Hogan Lovells website, did not respond to a call for comment.
DLA Piper’s East Palo Alto office co-managing partner Richard Scudellari said the firm is excited to bring Albright aboard. He starts Monday. “He has a terrific background and terrific contacts, and I know he’s going to fit in quite nicely for us,” Scudellari said, adding that his presence is expected to boost the life sciences practice throughout the state.
“The most activity as of late has been in the San Diego area, but, having said that, the geography is not so important anymore,” Scudellari said. “We may have two offices up here, but with the many types of technology and life science companies on the peninsula, in South San Francisco, north of San Francisco, and in San Francisco itself, it really is one market.”
Albright represents life sciences companies in corporate, financial and transactional matters, with experience in intellectual property matters in strategic partnerships, joint ventures, alliances, and licensing and commercial distribution efforts. His clients work in multiple industries, including device and instrumentation, biopharmaceutical, vaccine and medical research.
While at Hogan Lovells, Albright represented Menlo Park-based ViroBay Inc. in its agreement with Parsippany, N.J.-based LEO Pharma Inc. to further develop a treatment for psoriasis. His clients include Proteus Digital Health Inc., Hyperion Therapeutics Inc. and medical research organization The J. David Gladstone Institutes. Those clients are based in Redwood City, Brisbane and San Francisco, respectively.
“We wish Shane all the best in his future endeavors,” said Hogan Lovells spokesman Robert Snoddy in a statement. “The Northern California offices of Hogan Lovells have a dynamic and talented team of lawyers. We recently expanded both of our offices and look forward to continued growth.”
Albright was represented in his move by Larry Watanabe and Ken Schwartz at Watanabe Nason.
Watanabe said there’s still a lot of demand for technology transactional partners, particularly in the life sciences.
“Specific expertise in life sciences is extremely attractive to firms with active corporate practices in Silicon Valley,” Watanabe said. “I expect this trend to continue.”
Albright joined Hogan Lovells in 2011, after leaving his post at Cooley. Albright ascended to special counsel during his almost nine years at Cooley, and joined Hogan Lovells at the partner rank