Robert A. Wilson, P.C.

Kirkland & Ellis counseled Riverspan Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm specializing in growth-oriented investments in the industrials sector, on its strategic investment in POLARIS Laboratories®, an industry leader in fluid analysis testing and reliability services. Riverspan’s support will bring capital and expertise for POLARIS to advance its position as the independent global leader in maintenance and reliability condition monitoring services. Read Riverspan’s press release The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Robert Wilson, Brandi Miller and Paul Koltz; debt finance lawyer James Anderson; and tax lawyer Mike Conroy.

Oct 11

1 min

Jordan A. Thomas Robert G. Wilson DiCello Levitt has acquired a boutique practice that represents U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission whistleblowers, bringing on a pair of former SEC attorneys whose clients have helped the government secure more than $2 billion in monetary sanctions, according to the firm. In an announcement Wednesday, DiCello Levitt said Jordan A. Thomas, a former assistant director and assistant chief litigation counsel in the SEC's Division of Enforcement, and his colleague Robert G. Wilson, a former deputy assistant director and branch chief of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, are now of counsel with DiCello Levitt's whistleblower practice group. Thomas and Wilson's boutique, SEC Whistleblower Advocates PLLC, will now operate under the DiCello Levitt umbrella, a firm spokesperson told Law360 on Wednesday. The boutique's website and brand will remain in place, and Thomas will continue to chair its team, the spokesperson said. SEC Whistleblower Advocates, which Thomas and Wilson launched in 2022 with former colleagues at the firm now known as Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP, counts among its clients "the first officer of a public company to win a whistleblower award, the first successful SEC whistleblower to receive criminal immunity and the first whistleblower to receive an award because his company retaliated against him," DiCello Levitt said. In a statement, Thomas said that "by joining forces with DiCello Levitt, together, we can level the playing field for our clients and ensure that they don't have personal or professional regrets." Speaking by phone with Law360 on Wednesday, Thomas said that although in some ways his practice will remain the same, "what's different is that we now have a greater firm that can do all of the other whistleblower-related support services in-house." He said it is increasingly important for firms to be a one-stop shop for whistleblowers. For instance, SEC whistleblower clients may also have traditional employment problems and sometimes need to engage in litigation more broadly, he said. Those are legal services DiCello Levitt can provide, he said. That way, "we can continue to do the work that we've grown famous for," knowing other client needs can be met by the greater firm, Thomas said. "It isn't always easy, glamorous or lucrative to be a corporate whistleblower, and the stakes are even higher today, because the government has made a number of changes that have made it more difficult to be successful as a whistleblower," he said. DiCello Levitt "feels like it was kind of organically the right fit," Thomas said, in part because the head of its whistleblower practice, Chuck Dender, is Thomas' former protégé and someone he has worked with off and on for over a decade. "In partnerships you want to respect and trust the players, but it's particularly nice when you've known someone for this long," Thomas said. Thomas said he had a more personal reason for making the change, too. "My father passed away when he was 63. I'm 55. I'm beginning to think about my legacy," he said. "What I don't want it to be is: I had one of the most successful SEC whistleblower boutiques, and 10 years from now, when I want to retire, it just dies. I want the practice to continue." Speaking of DiCello Levitt, Thomas said, "The fact that they have a long view and are willing to invest significant resources in this practice for the long haul gives me comfort that the practice that I've built, and I'm so proud of, will thrive when I choose to retire."

Feb 4

3 min

Kirkland & Ellis counseled Periscope Equity, a Chicago-based private equity firm specializing in founder-led, technology-enabled services firms, on its acquisition of a majority recapitalization in The RepTrak Company, the global leader in reputation intelligence. This acquisition by Periscope Equity is a significant milestone, poised to strengthen RepTrak's competitive market position and accelerate its growth trajectory. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Robert Wilson, Rob Dixon and Jaisel Patel; tax lawyers Mike Conroy and Weiwei Chen; and technology & IP transactions lawyers Dan Lewis, Maggie King and Dan Sotos.

Dec 6

1 min

The Federal Circuit on Friday saved Regenxbio and the University of Pennsylvania's gene therapy patent, finding that splicing together genes from different organisms results in a molecule that is "markedly different from anything occurring in nature," rendering the therapy patent eligible. In the precedential decision, the appeals court panel dinged a Delaware federal court for deeming ineligible the patent that the university and licensee Regenxbio had asserted in a suit against Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. At the center of the eligibility question is the patented technology's use of a human-made host cell containing a recombinant nucleic acid molecule, which is a combination of two pieces of genetic material from two different organisms. The Delaware federal court had found that the patent doesn't do much besides combine two pieces of naturally occurring materials without any modifications. But the Federal Circuit disagreed, saying the patent covers a human-induced combination of genetic materials that behaves materially differently from naturally occurring phenomena. "It is uncontested that the claimed host cells include a recombinant nucleic acid molecule that does not and cannot exist in nature," the opinion said, adding that, "the recombinant nucleic acid molecule must be spliced together via human intervention from at least two different species to meet the claim limitations." To come to its conclusion, the appeals court panel took a tour through several precedential decisions addressing patent eligibility for inventions involving bacteria and DNA. One such case is the U.S. Supreme Court's 1948 decision in Funk Brothers Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co., in which the justices deemed ineligible a root nodule bacteria that could be used in growing legumes, saying it was "only some of the handiwork of nature." Also relevant to the case is the Supreme Court's 1980 decision in Diamond v. Chakrabarty, which dealt with genetically engineered bacterium for use in breaking down crude oil, a technology that the court deemed patent eligible. Friday's opinion also cited the court's 2013 opinion in Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., which was a mixed decision that found some patent claims ineligible since they merely isolated genes relevant to breast cancer occurrence, while finding other claims eligible because they covered the creation of a complementary deoxyribonucleic acid sequence out of messenger ribonucleic acid. Lastly, in ChromaDex, Inc. v. Elysium Health, Inc., the Federal Circuit found claims covering the isolation of a vitamin in milk to be patent-ineligible, since the claims aren't significantly different from milk. The appeals court said Friday that the Regenxbio patent is more analogous to the claims in the Chakrabarty case. Just like the genetically engineered bacterium in that case, the gene therapy technology at issue is "not nature's handiwork," the opinion said. And like the claims that survived the mixed decision in the Myriad case, the patent covers "something new" — the recombinant nucleic acid molecule — according to the Federal Circuit. The gene therapy is thus different from the legume bacteria claims in the Funk Brothers case, which the Federal Circuit described as little more than "an improvement in packaging" of natural materials. "Genetically engineering two nucleic acid sequences from separate species into a single molecule and then transforming a host cell in order to incorporate that new molecule into it … is materially different from growing more than one naturally occurring bacteria strain in a culture where none of the bacteria undergo any change from their natural state," the opinion said. Gene therapy treatments, like the one at issue in the opinion, can be used to treat genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease. Representatives for the parties did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. Circuit Judges Timothy B. Dyk, Todd M. Hughes and Kara F. Stoll sat on the panel for the Federal Circuit. The patent-at-issue is U.S. Patent No. 10,526,617. Regenxbio and The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania are represented by Susan E. Morrison and Deanna Jean Reichel. The trustees were also represented by Julie S. Goldemberg and Amy M. Dudash of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. Sarepta is represented by Robert B. Wilson, James Baker and Anastasia M. Fernands of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. The case is Regenxbio Inc. et al. v. Sarepta Therapeutics Inc., case number 24-1408, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Feb 20

3 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co., Ltd. (Ribo Life, 6938.HK) on its global offering and listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The joint sponsors for the listing are China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited and Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited. Ribo Life has raised approximately HK$1.83 billion (after the full exercise of Offer Size Adjustment Option) from its global offering, making it the second largest Chapter 18A offering since 2022. The strong demand reflects significant market confidence in Ribo Life’s growth potential and business prospects. Founded in 2007, Ribo Life is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in oligonucleotide research and development, with a focus on siRNA therapeutics. It has one Core Product, RBD4059 (FXI-targeting siRNA), targeting thrombotic diseases, among a pipeline of seven in-house discovered drug assets in clinical trials for seven indications across cardiovascular, metabolic, renal and liver diseases, including four in phase 2 clinical trials. Through nearly two decades of dedicated research, Ribo Life has built integrated proprietary technology platforms tailored to oligonucleotide therapeutics, supported by a robust intellectual property portfolio in RNA interference (RNAi) technology worldwide. These platforms encompass the entire drug development cycle, from drug design, delivery, modification to CMC and manufacturing, serving as a solid foundation for its potential first- and best-in-class oligonucleotide therapeutics. In addition, Ribo Life is one of the few players worldwide with proprietary and clinically validated GalNAc delivery technology. The Kirkland team included capital markets lawyers Mengyu Lu, Ashlee Wu, Yuchen Han, Jing Du, Jiawei Zhao and Wanli Ma; corporate lawyer Robert Wilson; tax lawyers Devin Heckman, Anne Kim, Jessica Yeh and Pamela Ho; litigation lawyers Jodi Wu and Weng Keong Kok; and investment fund lawyer Phil Giglio.

Jan 9

1 min