Goodwin advised Blueprint Medicines in its $9.5 billion acquisition by Sanofi and represented SpringWorks Therapeutics as it was purchased by Merck for $3.9 billion, earning the firm a spot among the 2025 Law360 Life Sciences Groups of the Year. Seeing a life sciences client go from its first private funding round to, years later, embarking on an IPO or huge Big Pharma buy-up can feel a little like sending a kid off to college. But Goodwin's life sciences team, which is laser-focused on representing biotechs in the ecosystem, said it's all about that feeling. Kingsley Taft, a partner and co-chair of Goodwin's Life Sciences group, said the firm's practice is focused on representing life sciences companies from their "very early founding all the way through successful launch of products" and beyond as late-stage and commercial multibillion-dollar public companies. "At core, it's a company-side focused life science practice," he said.
That wide-ranging capability is by design. Mitch Bloom, global chair of Goodwin's Life Sciences practice, said that he and Taft — who both joined Goodwin just months apart more than two decades ago — were very intentional about the way that they built out the group. Goodwin today has 340 lawyers and professionals associated with life sciences globally. But back then, it was much smaller, with fewer resources, personnel, and capabilities. Both Bloom and Taft wanted to focus on innovative biotech, pharma, and med tech companies over Big Pharma clients. To do that, they wanted to make sure they could offer everything their clients needed as they scaled and grew their businesses. "I think we've really tried to build out our capabilities," Bloom said. Over the years, that's meant everything from developing a significant patent practice to having an extensive licensing and collaboration focus, regulatory compliance capabilities, and a deep background in M&A and capital markets. "We've made that investment and we've built up that capability and expertise because our clients demand it, they need it," he added. "It's critical to their ability to grow and move their companies forward."
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