Complex Investigations & Litigation

Choate’s IP litigation team is globally recognized for its work with, and the results it obtains for, leading life sciences and technology companies. Our experience covers a wide range of “bet the company” and other high stakes matters, including patent litigation (both in court and in IPR and other proceedings in the patent office), disputes involving IP ownership or derivation, misappropriation of trade secrets or other confidential information, and contract disputes relating to licenses, collaborations, manufacturing and other agreements. 

Our clients range from very large multinational corporations, to middle-market public companies on a high growth trajectory, to private companies with significant opportunities in the marketplace and for whom technology is their single most important asset.  Our lawyers in this area work closely with other parts of the Firm, including our corporate, licensing and deal lawyers, and our IP group and its team of talented lawyers and technology specialists who hold PhDs or other advanced degrees.

Because our Government Enforcement & White Collar Investigations group has a well-recognized track record for successfully resolving franchise and reputation-threatening matters at the earliest possible stage -- often without indictment, trial or publicity -- major global corporations and their executives entrust us with some of their most important and strategic matters.   We also work with clients on compliance issues to proactively avoid practices which may lead to government action. 

Our team includes lawyers with significant prosecutorial backgrounds, including partners who are former Assistant U.S. Attorneys.  We have deep expertise in healthcare, life sciences and financial services.  Our leading practices in these areas are driven by our ability to seamlessly collaborate with other parts of the Firm which have technical industry expertise, including our healthcare regulatory partners, our IP lawyers who specialize in life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, and our securities litigators.

Choate also provides business-oriented and practical corporate governance guidance in high-stakes cases in the area of securities litigation and regulation, corporate governance, M&A disputes and matters relating to shareholder activism. We also counsel our private equity clients and strategic M&A players, who turn to our litigation group for advice before entering into an M&A or investment transaction, and in connection with any deal or post-closing disputes, including working capital and earn-out issues, fraud claims, business valuations and complex indemnification disputes.

Healthcare Regulatory Compliance - Our healthcare and white collar defense and compliance teams provide regulatory advice and training to numerous life sciences, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on a broad range of matters ranging from off-label marketing concerns to the operation of patient services programs, tracking and reporting of transparency data, data privacy and security to interactions with charitable patient assistance programs. We also counsel and provide training to numerous academic medical centers and community hospitals on matters implicating state and federal fraud and abuse laws, clinical research activities, allegations of scientific misconduct or grants administration issues, Medicare billing and refunding of overpayment requirements, and general regulatory concerns.

We represent clients before federal and state trial and appellate courts and government agencies and in arbitrations across the United States and internationally. Our team has extensive experience in a broad range of business disputes and industries, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in strategically important matters. 

Our attorneys have handled high-stakes litigation matters representing both plaintiffs and defendants, across jurisdictions and in myriad substantive business areas, including antitrust, bankruptcy, breach of fiduciary duty, class actions, challenging governmental actions, complex contract, constitutional law, construction, False Claims Act, M&A, professional negligence, real estate, tort claims, and trade secrets.

We represent insurers and reinsurers in some of their most important and complex coverage disputes, litigation, and arbitration.  We have a leading international reinsurance trial practice, with expertise in litigating and arbitrating disputes concerning  property catastrophe reinsurance (hurricanes, wildfires, winter losses, industry loss warranties, catastrophe bonds), life and annuity reinsurance, financial reinsurance, health reinsurance, and asbestos and other environmental losses.  Our direct-side coverage work is nationally recognized, including our expertise involving disputes concerning opioid litigation, asbestos, pollution, mass casualty incidents, and rescission based on policyholder misrepresentations. 

Our clients include Chubb, The Hartford, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual, Sompo, Starr and Swiss Re.

Research security at U.S. research universities and medical institutions has become a top priority as a myriad of federal agencies that support research, gather and monitor intelligence, and provide for our national security continue to raise concerns about integrity in science, including unreported violations related to conflicts of interest, foreign support, data privacy and security, and peer review.   

Our services to educational institutions is nationally recognized by Legal 500 and include leading internal reviews of grant management and research security practices for prestigious universities and academic medical centers and responding to outside inquiries or allegations regarding scientific misconduct, conflicts of interest or commitment, undisclosed foreign support, or federal grants mismanagement.  We have helped numerous institutions resolve material findings by government agencies whether via self-disclosures, refunds where appropriate, or settlement agreements. We also closely follow revisions to federal regulations and guidance documents governing academic research, including research security requirements (e.g., NSPM-33) and provide thought leadership on these issues via podcasts and webinars.  

Our research compliance specialists, some of whom have held positions in prominent healthcare or life sciences institutions, can advise on a range of issues, including:

• Responses to “whistleblowers” complaints and other allegations or investigations by federal agencies, including NIH, HHS, and DOJ
• The design and performance of routine and focused compliance reviews of research policies and procedures as well as targeted internal investigations
• Research compliance program design and implementation
• Compliance with government grants and contracts

Representative Engagements

• Response to NIH inquiries regarding suspected faculty ties to foreign counties for universities and teaching hospital clients.

• Development of risk management strategies for university and teaching hospital conflict of interest processes and programs related to foreign influence.

• Coordination of response to law enforcement investigations and internal investigations related to foreign influence in research, conflict of interest and conflict of commitment for universities and teaching hospital clients.

• Representing teaching hospital client in connection with attempted theft of biological specimens from research laboratory.

With decades of government and private practice experience dealing with increasingly complex cybersecurity incidents and data privacy laws, Choate’s cybersecurity and data privacy practice counsels a wide range of businesses and organizations on compliance with U.S. data privacy laws, responding to cybersecurity incidents, conducting and evaluating risk assessments, and handling cybersecurity and privacy litigation.

Data Privacy: We represent companies and investors in a wide range of privacy-related matters across industries. We have deep HIPAA expertise and routinely advise healthcare providers and their business partners in developing policies, procedures and programs to comply with privacy laws and also in response to patient complaints, audits and investigations. We regularly advise companies on rapidly evolving state data privacy laws and have particular expertise in sophisticated data sharing arrangements.

Cybersecurity: Our team advises businesses and institutions responding to cybersecurity incidents, helping them recover, remediate, recoup, and mitigate further risk, including conducting internal investigations and cybersecurity reviews, preparing incident response plans, complying with U.S. data breach laws, and interfacing with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. Additionally, we represent clients in obtaining compensation for losses from responsible vendors or other third parties.

We also advise clients in retaining incident response and forensic investigation firms to assess the nature and extent of any cybersecurity incident, and we manage the investigation and response process with the technical firm.  In order to mitigate risk, we frequently work with clients and technical firms to implement, test and monitor cybersecurity systems.

In addition, our team assists businesses and high net worth individuals in responding to and recovering from increasing and constantly evolving forms of cybercrime – such as ransomware, email account compromise, hacking, identity theft, online fraud, and cyberstalking/harassment.

In addition to our market-leading practices in the areas described above, Choate has a long and cherished tradition of providing pro bono services to those in need and less fortunate.  Please learn more about our work in this area.