The firm has opened an office in Seattle, Washington with former U.S. Attorney, Jenny Durkan. She will serve as Global Chair of the Cyber Law and Privacy Group, and join the firm’s White Collar & Corporate Investigations practice. She will be joined by John (“Jay”) Neukom, a partner from the firm’s San Francisco Office. More >>

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co’s Life Sciences team has advised GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on the sale of its shareholding interests in biopharmaceutical company Convergence Pharmaceuticals to NASDAQ-listed Biogen Idec. The $675 million deal takes place just four years after the team advised GSK on the spin-out venture which created Convergence.

The deal sees Biogen Idec pay Convergence shareholders an upfront payment of $200 million for the business and its innovative portfolio of drugs for use in the treatment of neuropathic pain. These include products that have demonstrated ‘proof of concept’ for treating conditions such as sciatica and trigeminal neuralgia, which causes severe, episodic facial pain. Shareholders will also be eligible for future milestone payments of up to $475 million, contingent on future milestone events. More >>

Global law firm, Morgan Lewis is advising the international building materials group CRH plc (“CRH”) on the global merger control and antitrust issues of its recently announced binding commitment to acquire certain assets from Lafarge S.A. (“Lafarge”) and Holcim Ltd (“Holcim”) for an enterprise value of €6.5bn. The acquisition takes place in the context of the planned merger of Holcim and Lafarge and completion is expected for mid-2015. More >>

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is acting as U.S. counsel to Catlin Group Limited (“Catlin”) in its agreement with XL Group plc (“XL”) under which XL will offer to acquire all of the capital stock of Catlin for approximately £2.79 billion. The combined business is expected to have a leading presence in the global specialty insurance and reinsurance markets. More >>

Eurasia Drilling Company Limited (EDC) announced on 20 January 2015 that it has agreed with members of its management team the terms of a merger between EDC and EDC Acquisition Company Limited, which will result in EDC being delisted from the London Stock Exchange and its minority shareholders being paid US$22 per Global Depositary Receipt. The transaction values EDC at approximately US$3.2 billion. Conditional on the merger taking place, affiliates of Schlumberger Limited have agreed to buy approximately 45.65 percent of the shares in EDC, with an option to buy the balance of the EDC shares in the future. The deal is subject to a number of conditions and is expected to close in the second half of February 2015. More >>

Cooley LLP, a leading technology and life sciences US law firm, announced today that it has launched a UK practice in London. Cooley’s new office will include 20 partners and more than 55 lawyers and other professionals in total.

“Cooley plans to make a big impact in London,” said Joe Conroy, Cooley’s chief executive officer. “We have brought together partners who are the very best in their fields, and who share our values and approach to achieving success for our global client base. From our San Francisco and Silicon Valley roots, we have grown to 850 lawyers, solving complex business and litigation issues for the world’s most dynamic companies.” More >>