A MOMENT OF RECOGNITION
The Life Sciences Awards Europe looks to recognize leading European law firms and lawyers in the life sciences industry.
WHAT DO YOU AWARD?
The awards ceremony aims to honour firms and attorneys on the forefront of legal work in life sciences across practice and technology areas. The award’s distinctive structure highlights firms, individuals and notable matters following a comprehensive research process surveying the market each year.
We award law firms and lawyers working in life sciences and publish the shortlists and winners on our websites and social media.
RANKING CRITERIA
Our law firm rankings are based on three key criteria:
Case evidence
We ask firms to provide recent deal and case highlights and this is used to determine their position in the market.
Firms should provide their most complex and interesting matters in the research form and explain clearly to our research team why they are important and what they tell us about the firm’s abilities.
Client feedback
We speak to a wide range of corporate and in-house contacts to get their opinions on the firms and attorneys they use.
Peer feedback
We engage with lawyers throughout Europe in life sciences legal field and get their opinions on other firms and attorneys that are showing great success in this field of legal practice.
KEY DATES
Submission Deadline
January 28
Shortlist announced
April 6
Winners Announced
May 13
CATEGORIES
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
The awards will recognise the best law firm in the following categories:
Competition / antitrust
Corporate
Licensing and collaboration
M&A
Opposition procedure
Parallel import
Patent litigation – Biologics/Biosimilars
Patent litigation – Biotech
Patent litigation – Medical devices
Patent litigation – Pharmaceuticals
Patent strategy
Product liability
Regulatory
SPC litigation
Venture capital
White collar crime
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
The lawyer of the year awards will be based primarily on the role an individual has played on influential cases. The award will also take into consideration advocacy, influence and thought leadership during the period.
• ‘Professional accomplishments’: please include the nominee’s key recent legal work from calendar year 2020.
• ‘Advocacy, influence and thought leadership’: please include examples that demonstrate the nominee’s influence in their specialism outside of transactional work, such as roles in decision-making and leadership, examples of professional creativity and thought leadership.
Entries under ‘work highlights’ that detail key legal matters will also be used to evaluate individual lawyer candidates.
Lawyer of the year will be awarded in the following categories:
Advisory
Competition / antitrust
Corporate
Judicial review
Licensing and collaboration
M&A
Parallel import
Patent litigator – Biologics/Biosimilars
Patent litigator – Biotech
Patent litigator – Medical devices
Patent litigator – Pharmaceuticals
Patent strategy and management
Product liability
SPC litigator
White collar crime
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
A rising star is an associate or of counsel-level lawyer. Partner-level lawyers are not eligible for rising star awards, unless the candidate made partner during the research period. Suitable candidates must have under 15 years of professional experience, be under 40 years old and be acting at partner level.
Rising star lawyers will be awarded in the following categories:
Financial & corporate
IP
Non-IP Litigation
Regulatory
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
The deals and cases detailed in the ‘work highlights’ section of the form will form the basis of the research for impact cases of the year. We will also review external sources. Evaluation of cases will include: complexity, innovation, challenges, impact and outcomes. Work must have closed or had key milestones in 2020 and must be publishable.
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
National firm of the year awards will be based primarily on the evidence of work highlights. The evaluation will focus on work done under the governing law of the relevant jurisdiction, considering the role of the firm in the work, its impact and complexity. National firm of the year will be awarded for the following jurisdictions:
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
There is a separate form for direct in-house submissions. In-house team awards will be awarded for the following categories: collaboration,* compliance,** ESG,*** IP, financial & corporate, litigation & enforcement.
IP, financial & corporate and litigation & enforcement will be based on work highlights.
*Collaboration: this category covers collaborative highlights by the legal team in calendar year 2020. It seeks to reward complex and high impact projects that required collaboration with private practice, authorities and industry associations.
**Compliance: this is to reward committed and innovative compliance and reporting projects. The award will consider a team’s activities in engaging with local compliance regulations and the subsequent reporting: the complexity of the work, its novelty and outcomes will be considered.
***ESG: ESG stands for environmental, social and corporate governance. This category will reward pioneering / transformative ESG policies implemented by the team.
General Counsel of the Year
Firm of the Year
Lawyer of the Year
Rising Star Lawyer of the Year
Impact Cases of the Year
National Firm of the Year
In-house Team of the Year
General Counsel of the Year
Individual awards for in-house practitioners will be awarded in the following categories:
• General counsel leadership award
• General counsel team development award
• UK general counsel of the year
• EU general counsel of the year
Leadership award: recognises leadership within the team and organisation as well as broader leadership roles within the life sciences legal community.
CONTACT US
For more information on the research process, what we award, or for any general enquiries, get in touch with us below: