Dona Ardeman > Mills & Reeve LLP > Cambridge, England > Lawyer Profile

The Cambridge office of Mills & Reeve LLP is ‘pragmatic and provides good all round advice on agreements, fund-raising and due diligence‘. The firm has a large multidisciplinary team that acts for global companies, among them GlaxoSmithKline, as well as universities and early-stage biotechnology companies. It is also a leading adviser to research institutes and medical research charities. Its work spans corporate transactions, IP, regulatory advice, HR issues and disputes. Practice head James Fry (who has ‘excellent oversight of what is need to support a growing biotech company‘) advises life sciences companies on intellectual property matters and complex commercial contracting. Fund creation specialist Dona Ardeman , corporate partner Jonathan Greenwood , employment adviser Melanie James and corporate finance expert Zickie Lim  are among the partners who play central roles in the biotechnology practice.

Led from Cambridge by the ‘practical and responsive’ Zickie Lim and also able to marshal resources from Norwich and London, Mills & Reeve LLP handles a significant volume of early stage work, in particular, for both funds and investees, including a considerable amount of university spin-out matters. As well as standalone transactional work, Dona Ardeman‘s fund formation expertise also regularly leads to the subsequent downstream investments handled by these entities.