Jenny Davies will join Cooley as a partner in the firm’s London life sciences partnering and licensing practice. Davies’ practice includes advising on complex, cross-border, and high-value licensing and collaboration deals. Davies arrives from Gowling WLG, where she was head of its life sciences practice.
“Jenny is one of the most distinguished life sciences partnering and licensing lawyers of her generation,” said John Wilkinson, life sciences partner at Cooley in London. “She has advised on some of the most strategic deals for European companies developing and commercialising cutting-edge vaccines and medicines. Jenny’s experience is highly complementary to Cooley’s global life sciences practice, and we know she will be a key contributor to our platform’s next stage of growth.”
Davies’ life sciences practice covers the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. She excels in negotiating research, development, manufacture, and commercialisation licence and collaboration agreements for clients, including advising on highly complex, company-transforming transactions. Davies also counsels clients with respect to patent analysis, strategy and enforcement, and she has led UK patent litigations and European Patent Office oppositions.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jenny to Cooley,” said Claire Keast-Butler, co-partner in charge of Cooley’s London office. “Our global life sciences team has unrivalled experience working with the sector’s most innovative companies and their investors, across all our practices - including corporate, partnering and licensing, patents, regulatory and litigation. Bringing Jenny on board further strengthens our life sciences platform and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the life sciences industry as a core component of our future growth in Europe and globally.”
Davies was named a Rising Star by Managing IP four times since 2017. She earned her master’s degree in molecular and cellular biochemistry, concentrating on oncology, virology and metabolism, from the University of Oxford in 2006, her LLB from the University of Law in 2008, and her postgraduate diploma in intellectual property law from the University of Oxford in 2011.
Hiring the market’s very best talent is core to Cooley’s growth strategy in London. Partner appointments in the last few years have included: Frances Stocks Allen, partnering and licensing, and Caroline Hobson, antitrust and competition, in 2022; and Simon Amies, corporate life sciences, and Charlie Lightfoot, chair of the firm’s international arbitration practice, in 2023. In 2024, Cooley announced the arrival of Mark Simpson to its contentious antitrust and competition practice in May, leading data litigation partner Bryony Hurst to the commercial litigation practice in August, and, in September, the arrivals of partners Angus Miln, Ali Ramadan and Helen Pantelides to the firm’s pre-eminent emerging companies and venture capital practice.
Cooley’s full-service global life sciences capabilities are unmatched. The firm represents nearly 2,500 public and private life sciences clients worldwide, including almost 50% of the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index. Clients include biotech, medtech and specialty pharmaceutical companies at the forefront of innovation, including cell and gene therapies, artificial intelligence-led drug discovery and new vaccine technologies. Cooley has a dedicated team of more than 40 life sciences strategic partnering and licensing lawyers.
Cooley is Law360’s Life Sciences Group of the Year and has been the #1 venture capital law firm for biotech and pharma venture financings for the past decade (PitchBook). Cooley also is the #1 firm for issuer-side life sciences initial public offerings (Deal Point Data). In 2024, Cooley’s life sciences practice received multiple LMG Life Sciences EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) Awards, including Venture Capital Firm of the Year and four Impact Deals of the Year.
This news story was originally published on the firm’s website.