Hogan Lovells is acquiring Boston-based litigation and investigations firm Collora on 1 September, taking on 15 partners in a move to bolster the firm’s life sciences offering in the US.
The Collora buyout gives Hogan Lovells access to a new market within the US. It will gain Collora’s expertise in life sciences and healthcare, as well as its financial services and technology clients. After the deal completes, Hogan Lovells and Collora will share over 500 life sciences lawyers.
All of Collora’s ten other lawyers and business services members will join Hogan Lovells. Hogan Lovells later plans to bolster the new office’s regulatory, corporate transactions and intellectual property capacity.
Hogan Lovells global life sciences head Asher Rubin told Legal Business that talks regarding opening in Boston dated back to late 2014. Specific merger negotiations with Collora commenced in late 2016.
Rubin described the Boston opening as a ‘unique opportunity in the world’, due to the unusually high concentration of large pharma corporations and world-class medical facilities in the area.
‘We are one of the premier life sciences firms in the world, but we weren’t in one of the premier life sciences locations in the world,’ he said.
The firms both pointed to growth in Boston’s financial services and investment community.
Collora managing partner Bill Lovett, who will serve as the new office managing partner, said the combination came after searching ‘very hard’ to make sure any potential suitor would have the right ‘cultural fit’.
Collora is Hogan Lovells’ first new office since October 2016, when it became the third firm to enter the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone through an association with local firm Fujian Fidelity Law Firm.
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk