Nutter, McClennen & Fish, LLP

Seth Berman

Seth P. Berman leads Nutter’s Privacy and Data Security practice group and is a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense practice group. Corporations, boards of directors, and executives rely on Seth’s advice and counsel in each of these areas of expertise. Seth is regularly engaged to assist corporations and their boards in addressing the legal and strategic aspects of data privacy laws and cybersecurity risk, and to prepare for and respond to data breaches, hacking, ransomware attempts, and other cyberattacks. Seth also routinely represents corporate and individual clients in white collar criminal and complex civil cases, including clients facing indictment or dealing with civil or criminal government investigations, subpoenas, or other requests for information. Additionally, organizations and their boards frequently engage Seth to conduct internal investigations on their behalf.

William Bernat

William J. Bernat is a partner in Nutter’s Corporate Department. He chairs the firm's Emerging Companies Group and co-leads the firm's Food and Beverage group. Clients routinely rely on Will to help them navigate through private equity, venture capital, and angel financing transactions, as well as mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending transactions, and other corporate governance issues. Tech, life sciences, consumer/retail, and food & beverage companies look to Will for assistance throughout their entire lifespans, from initial planning and formation to operations and exit, including formulating the strategy to realize their business goals and to build the foundation necessary to secure third party investment. Investors in emerging growth companies seek Will’s counsel when structuring their financing transactions. Will has counseled clients in angel and venture backed financings representing an aggregate of over $500 million in investment in local early stage companies. Banks and other financial institutions rely on Will’s expertise when structuring asset-based and other commercial lending transactions with both emerging and entrepreneurial companies and more mature borrowers. Will has guided both lenders and borrowers through transactions representing aggregate commitments in excess of $1 billion.

Patrick Concannon

Patrick J. Concannon is a partner in Nutter's Intellectual Property and Corporate Departments. Pat also co-chairs Nutter’s Trademarks and Brands practice. His practice focuses on intellectual property disputes and on commercial agreement work focused on exploiting intellectual property and protecting and leveraging data. A trusted business adviser to companies looking to expand, Pat helps companies of all sizes protect their brands. He advises clients on how to leverage their proprietary technology via commercial agreements, and counsels companies about protecting and lawfully collecting, using and disclosing data. Pat represents companies in trademark and copyright dispute proceedings in court and before administrative agencies, in domain name arbitration proceedings and in negotiating settlement agreements in these areas. Pat has extensive experience in trademark clearance, which is derived in part from his pre-law background work with a leading trademark research firm. Pat brings a global perspective to brand protection and portfolio management that is informed by his having worked at his prior firm’s London office.

Paul Eklund

Paul Eklund is a partner in Nutter’s Corporate Department, chairs the firm’s Investment Funds practice group, and is a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions, Commercial and Real Estate Finance, and Philanthropy practice groups. Middle market companies, family-owned businesses, financial institutions, real estate developers and institutions, and not-for-profit organizations all rely on his 35+ years of experience and judgment in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships (both real estate and corporate), fund formations, corporate governance, finance, and business succession planning. Manufacturers and distributors, technology and software companies, health care companies, health insurers, and start-ups rely on his experience and judgment in facilitating their various business arrangements and growth. Financial institutions rely on his experience and judgment in asset-based, health care, and REIT lending, as well as mezzanine, subordinate, and bond financings.

Emmanuel Filandrianos

Emmanuel D. Filandrianos is a partner in Nutter’s Intellectual Property Department. He advises clients on utility and design patent preparation and prosecution, patent prior art searches and analysis, and product clearance. A biomedical engineer as well as an attorney, Emmanuel’s practice has a particular focus on consumer products and medical devices. Emmanuel is a member of the Intellectual Property Section of the Boston Bar Association (BBA), where he has presented on design patent law as part of the BBA’s lecture series.

Suzanne Hamel

Suzanne Hamel is a partner in Nutter’s Corporate Department. She focuses her practice on private equity, venture capital, emerging company representation, mergers and acquisitions, venture debt, and general corporate law. Private companies, venture capital firms, emerging companies, and individual investors frequently engage Suzanne for legal advice on venture capital financings, private equity financings, merger and acquisitions, debt financings, executive compensation, and corporate matters. She has extensive experience in venture capital financings, day-to-day corporate counseling, investments, mergers, acquisitions, sale of assets, private placements, employment, non-competition, consulting, and nondisclosure and assignment of invention agreements. Suzanne’s practice is heavily transactions-based, and she also serves as outside general counsel to clients in various industries.

Jonathan Harris

Jonathan Harris is a business-minded life sciences patent attorney and MBA. He has 25 years of experience in every facet of patent practice. Jonathan has drafted patent licenses and collaboration agreements, served as first chair trial counsel in patent actions worth billions of dollars, led IP diligence teams, and prepared and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications. Jonathan’s experience in pharmaceuticals is particularly extensive. He has negotiated and drafted strategic alliances, manufacture/supply agreements, and clinical trial agreements. He has served as lead trial counsel in over a dozen Paragraph IV matters on behalf of some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He has overseen prosecution of Orange Book listed patents. Jonathan works regularly with emergent life science companies to help position their patent estates to raise capital and prepare for successful exit.

Sarah Kelly

Sarah Kelly is a partner and co-chair of Nutter’s Business Litigation practice group. She serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Clients across industries turn to Sarah for her problem-solving abilities and strategic thinking about commercial contract disputes, including real estate and construction litigation. Sarah also guides clients though complex insurance-related issues. As an experienced practitioner, she has significant courtroom experience, including jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations. Sarah also has wide-ranging experience defending clients in toxic tort litigation. In the construction and real estate space, Sarah’s work includes litigating and resolving disputes regarding commercial construction, leasing, zoning, and permitting. Sarah counsels her clients, including developers, throughout the stages of their projects, and, when unresolvable disputes arise, Sarah strategically guides clients through the litigation process.

Jonathan Kotlier

Jonathan L. Kotlier chairs Nutter’s White Collar Defense practice group. Numerous corporations and individuals rely on Jonathan’s extensive experience and expertise in white collar criminal matters and complex civil cases involving allegations of securities fraud, health care fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, environmental crimes, government contracting fraud, and False Claims Act violations. Prior to joining the firm in 2004, Jonathan was Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. Corporations and special litigation committees frequently engage Jonathan to conduct internal investigations on their behalf. He recently represented executives at several different pharmaceutical companies in investigations involving off-label promotion and False Claims Act violations. He regularly represents individuals and corporations before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FINRA, and the Massachusetts Securities Division. Jonathan has an outstanding track record of persuading prosecutive agencies not to bring actions against his clients.

Michael Krebs

Michael K. Krebs is a member of Nutter's Executive Committee and chair of the Banking and Financial Services practice group. Michael's areas of expertise as a corporate attorney include complex mergers and acquisitions, securities law matters, corporate finance and corporate governance. He represents issuers in a broad range of capital market transactions, including public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. Michael also advises companies and individuals on the design of executive employment agreements and incentive compensation arrangements. Michael serves as corporate and regulatory counsel to a variety of banks, savings institutions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions. With extensive financial services regulation experience, he has represented clients before various federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, the Massachusetts Division of Banks, the New Hampshire Banking Department, and the California Department of Financial Institutions.

Michael Kushnir

Michael E. Kushnir is a partner in Nutter’s Corporate Department. He has extensive experience in representing public and private companies in complex transactions and general corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity transactions, business planning and organization, and business succession planning. Mike regularly acts as outside general legal counsel to early stage and mature companies in a broad range of industries, including technology, software, food service and hospitality, manufacturing, retailing, and professional services.

Gurunathan Laxmikanthan

Gurunathan Laxmikanthan, Ph.D. is a partner in Nutter’s Intellectual Property Department. He provides assistance on patent prosecution, freedom-to-operate analysis in Series A, B, and C funding, interference proceedings, and infringement enforcement strategies in the fields of biochemistry, immunology, molecular and structural biology, and small molecules. Venture capital firms rely on Guru to conduct intellectual property due diligence. He frequently advises startup pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Guru’s extensive experience in biotech and life sciences encompasses many areas of research, including proteases, recombinases, organic and inorganic chemistry, structure-based drug design, electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography, and molecular modeling. He has developed novel structural methods using methylases to improve the contrast and signal-to-noise ratio for the feature of small macromolecular complexes in electron microscopy. Guru has successfully engineered a bi-directional Cre recombinase into a unidirectional co-factor dependent recombinase, identical to the classic paradigm system of Lambda integrase. In addition, he has designed a new method for assaying potential activators of proteases using hybrid proteins containing fragments from Fibroblast growth factors and sequences of preforms of kallikreins. He has also solved a high-resolution crystal structure of human kallikrein 1 during his graduate work.

Michael Leard

Mike solves problems. Not every problem, however, requires litigation. Often, the right solution requires collaboration with other practice areas. When that is the case, Mike enjoys connecting clients with his vast network of transactional colleagues, both within Nutter and with affiliated firms across the globe. Where litigation is necessary, Mike thrives on the intellectual competition as one of only a handful of Chambers-ranked commercial litigators in Massachusetts. For nearly 15 years, he has represented individuals and companies of all sizes from across the country in the areas of commercial litigation and product liability, including pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer product mass tort litigation. Mike regularly practices in the Massachusetts state and federal courts and has substantial experience in multi-district litigations. Here's what clients have to say: \t"Mike is a trusted advisor. In addition to having all the tools a litigator needs in his toolbox he provides pragmatic advice, from both a litigation and business perspective.” \t"Michael is extremely engaged and has been able to advise on a depth of questions while navigating with the opposing counsel." \t"Mike is a tremendous trial lawyer who works hard and is attentive to detail and overall strategy." In addition to his practice, Mike serves as a Trustee of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, a legal charity dedicated to increasing access to justice for all Massachusetts residents, as Section Council for the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Litigation Section (check out his interview on the MassBar Beat podcast series), and is actively involved in leadership for the Defense Research Institute’s Drug and Medical Device section. He has been recognized in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and Boston Magazine’s inaugural list of “Top Lawyers.”

Eric Magnuson

Eric P. Magnuson is a business litigator who co-chairs Nutter’s Business Litigation Practice Group. He has more than 25 years of litigation experience, focusing on complex commercial, class-action, and fiduciary disputes. He represents a range of clients, including businesses, insurers, financial institutions, and directors and officers. Clients rely on his judgment and steady leadership in high-stakes matters where sound analysis and strategic insight converge to shape outcomes. He served as Executive Note Editor of the Arizona Law Review. Complexity is the common denominator of Eric’s practice. He has litigated cases involving an array of allegations, including (among many others) bank fraud, unfair competition, tortious conduct, contractual breach, unfair insurance practices, infringement of constitutional rights, negligent product design, violations of export-import laws, infringement of intellectual property, and breaches of data privacy laws. Eric has also litigated bankruptcy matters, and he has served as a Special Assistant Attorney General. Eric’s skillset goes beyond the direct sphere of litigation. Clients regularly rely on Eric’s expertise when negotiating the “front end” of business deals, including mergers and acquisitions. Eric also spearheads internal investigations on behalf of financial institutions and other clients. As a member of Nutter’s Privacy and Data Security practice group, Eric helps clients respond to data breaches and network intrusions.

Ian Roffman

Ian Roffman leads a Securities Enforcement and Litigation team that clients rely on when facing SEC investigations, securities litigation, government inquiries, corporate governance disputes, and complex civil disputes. Our clients include investment advisers; broker-dealers; private funds; insurance companies and the individuals who lead them; public companies and their executives and directors; accounting firms and accountants; banks and credit unions; private investors; and others involved in complex financial matters, including elected officials and agencies. Clients also engage Ian to conduct internal investigations to uncover potential wrongdoing, make independent findings, head off litigation or regulatory inquiries, or remediate malfeasance. An experienced trial lawyer, Ian served as Senior Trial Counsel in the SEC’s Boston office prior to joining Nutter. In addition to leading the firm’s Securities Enforcement and Litigation practice, Ian served a six-year term on the firm’s governing Executive Committee and was chair of the firm’s litigation department. He currently serves as co-chair of the Amicus Committee of the Boston Bar Association and sits on the Amicus Advisory Board for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, where he previously served as co-chair. He has held a number of roles with the Boston Bar Association, including Council member. He has also played a leadership role in a number of civic and charitable organizations, including board vice-chair of a community mental health center and board chair of a local education foundation.

Thomas Rosedale

Tom Rosedale chairs Nutter’s Corporate Department and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He primarily advises clients on public and private company securities law matters (including public offerings, ATM transactions, PIPE and registered direct offerings), mergers and acquisitions (public and private), venture capital and private equity transactions, and general corporate matters. Tom also represents family offices with their many diverse legal needs. Tom regularly advises companies on executive employment matters and incentive compensation arrangements, with credit facilities and he has been instrumental in settling litigation and other disputes. Tom’s practice is heavily transactions-based, and he also serves as outside general counsel to clients in various industries.

David Rubin

David is a partner in Nutter's Litigation Department and a member of the firm’s Labor, Employment and Benefits practice group. He represents clients in a broad range of industries, including utility and power generation, technology, private equity and financial services, and manufacturing. David also represents non-profit entities in health care, the arts, and social service. David’s practice encompasses virtually all aspects of labor and employment law. Labor Relations and Litigation David regularly represents and counsels unionized employers in collective bargaining, arbitration, and labor relations. He has also represented numerous employers confronting union organizing campaigns, strikes, and picketing. David has brought and defended claims before the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of companies. Over the course of more than 25 years of practice, David has litigated employment-related cases on behalf of businesses in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies. He has defended employers against claims for discrimination, wrongful discharge, breach of contract, and a variety of other actions. In addition, he regularly advises and represents businesses and executives with respect to non-compete agreements and litigation. Business Transactions David represents companies, investors, entrepreneurs, and senior executives in the labor and employment aspects of all types of business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and equity investments. He drafts and negotiates complex employment and separation agreements, as well as employee equity and benefit plans. Employment Law A substantial part of David’s practice is providing advice to companies on all types of employment law issues. He assists employers in structuring reductions-in-force, and with creating and administering employee benefit plans. David has extensive experience in wage and hour, affirmative action, and WARN Act compliance.

Steven Saunders

Steven G. Saunders is a partner and chair of Nutter’s Intellectual Property Department. Clients of all sizes, from emerging companies to multinational corporations, rely on Steven’s counsel for managing all of their intellectual property needs, including IP portfolio development, strategy and evaluation, patent preparation and prosecution, product clearance, inter partes reviews (IPRs), litigation management, reexamination, and licensing. Drawing on his experience as both IP counsel and angel investor, Steven also conducts due diligence analysis in preparation of angel or venture capital investments, mergers, or acquisitions. As a high tech patent lawyer, Steven frequently handles complex investigations on behalf of clients, which ultimately demonstrate that their products do not infringe on third-party patents, or that the third-party patents are invalid. In addition, he often helps clients in designing around third-party patents.

Mark Tarallo

Mark J. Tarallo is a partner in Nutter’s Corporate Department. He represents clients in a broad array of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, private equity transactions, and securities offerings. Mark works with clients of all sizes ranging from startups to publicly listed international companies. Mark regularly counsels buyers, sellers, investors, and issuers on business planning, corporate governance, and transaction due diligence. He has extensive experience advising private funds and investment advisers in connection with regulatory and securities matters.

Kathleen Williams

Kathleen M. Williams, Ph.D., is a partner in Nutter’s Intellectual Property Department and the chair of the firm’s Life Sciences practice group. She advises clients in the life sciences industry on all aspects of patent law, including patent portfolio creation and management, patentability of inventions and commercialization in view of third-party patents, patent prosecution, and patent life cycle management. Emerging and mature life sciences companies, research institutions, and investors frequently turn to Kathleen for guidance on patent strategy and complex legal issues surrounding the protection of discoveries in the life sciences. Kathleen has extensive experience in complex patent interferences before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well as in inter partes reviews (IPRs). She often handles intellectual property due diligence for corporate transactions such as acquisitions, investments, licenses, and initial public offerings.

Melanie Woodward

Melanie V. Woodward is a partner in Nutter’s Litigation Department and a member of the firm’s Business Litigation, Securities Enforcement and Litigation, and Labor and Employment Litigation practice groups. Clients frequently engage Melanie for legal advice in complex commercial litigation matters, government investigations, and internal investigations. Clients appreciate Melanie’s creative approach to each case, considering the client’s goals and the unique facts of the case to develop a customized strategy. With significant courtroom experience, Melanie has successfully tried cases in Massachusetts state and federal courts. Clients value Melanie’s willingness to pursue a case to trial, while also giving candid advice along the way about risks and opportunities for settlement.