Firms cash in on GSK JV with Novartis

Partners at Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the 500 lawyers to have cashed in on the billion-dollar joint venture between Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), The Lawyer reported.

The pharmaceutical giants will swap assets as part of the deal, with GSK acquiring Novartis’ global vaccines unit, excluding its flu division, for USD7.1bn. Novartis will take on GSK’s cancer drugs business for USD16bn.

 GSK CEO Sir Andrew Witty said a total of 500 lawyers were involved in the deal. A spokesperson confirmed that this figure included external advisers and in-house lawyers on both sides, with GSK understood to have a global legal capacity of around 630.

Linklaters and Freshfields advised Novartis on the deal. Both firms are on Novartis’s legal panel, called the legal preferred firm programme, which was decided in 2012. The roster is comprised of 25 firms divided into four groups – global firms, US country firms, US country specialist firms and US country specialist intellectual property firms.