The Legal 500

Within Technology: data protection and privacy, Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP is a third tier firm,

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP’s ‘knowledgeable and responsive’ multi-disciplinary privacy and data protection group includes an on-call breach response team to advise companies on compliance with US and EU legal and regulatory requirements and contractual requirements, and is commended for providing ‘excellent service’. Led by ‘knowledgeable, good communicator’ Mark Schreiber in Boston and co-heads Theodore Augustinosin Hartford and Laurie Kamaiko in New York, it advises multinational corporates, major retailers, financial institutions and data processing entities on multinational data protection protocols and data breach responses.

Within M&A: middle-market ($500m-999m), Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP is a second tier firm,

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP also has a strong private equity and venture capital practice, and recently made a lateral partner hire in its London office with Shawn Atkinson. David Kovacs joined the practice in New York. Recent instructions include advising QBE Insurance Group Limited in its $565m acquisition of NAU Country Insurance, a Minnesota-based writer of crop insurance business. In the lower mid-market space, American Life Insurance Company was assisted in an all-cash acquisition of American-Amicable Holdings and its subsidiaries for $142m, and the firm acted for Atlantic Tele-Network in the $200m acquisition of wireless assets, including wireless spectrum licenses and network assets, from Verizon Wireless. The practice also receives large deal mandates, such as the representation of ABRY Partners in its approximately $1.2bn acquisition of RCN Corporation, one of the most complicated buyout deals of 2010, including an extensive reorganization process involving over 30 business segment transfers. Bruce Raphael, Richard Small, Marty Clarke and Walter Reed are all national practitioners worth of recognition.

Within Venture capital and emerging companies, tier 4

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP confirmed its commitment to the emerging companies environment in 2010, by launching its Helping Innovators Thrive programme. It is this focus on the sector that leads clients to describe the firm as ‘excellent’ and ‘outstanding’, with one client awarding it ‘10/10 for expert counsel’. The firm has a particularly strong record in the life sciences and biotechnology environment. In 2010, the firm represented MPM Capital and New Enterprise in a Series A financing by Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. It also advised Cequent Pharmaceuticals on the issuance of Series A-1 preferred stock to existing investors and new investors. In addition, it advised Novartis Bioventures on a Series A investment in Euthymics Bioscience. Other clients include Battelle Ventures, Brightspark Capital, Fidelity Biosciences, Oxford Bioscience Partners and SV Life Sciences. Boston is the centre of the firm’s emerging company and venture capital practice where co-chair of the department Jim Barrett is commended for his ‘attention to detail’ and ‘management of the team’.