The Week at Ropes & Gray: Innovating for Clients; a Deal for NFP and Madison Dearborn Partners; Investment Management Update; New Pro Bono Video; an Accolade for LGBT Equality

Weekly highlights of what’s happening at Ropes & Gray:

• The Financial Times ranked Ropes & Gray among North America’s leading innovative law firms in its Innovative Lawyers Report, which recognizes firms that have successfully innovated and adapted to serve client business interests. The firm was ranked #6 on the “FT 25,” shortlisted for the “Most Innovative North American Law Firm” award, and named a finalist for three other awards in categories citing innovations in legal expertise and the business of law. Among the Ropes & Gray work cited as “standout” was the firm’s representation of Pacira Pharmaceuticals in its suit against the FDA, in which the firm persuaded the FDA to rescind a Warning Letter and reverse its allegations that Pacira had engaged in misleading off-label marketing of its flagship drug, EXPAREL.

• In deal news, a cross-office team advised private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and NFP, a leading insurance broker and consultant providing employee benefits, insurance and wealth management solutions, as HPS Investment Partners agreed to make a substantial minority investment in NFP. Madison Dearborn Partners will maintain a controlling stake in NFP upon closing, which is expected in the first quarter of 2017.

• Our investment management team has published the latest issue of its quarterly update, which summarizes recent legal developments affecting the mutual fund/investment management industry. This edition examines an adviser's settlement with the SEC after allegations of valuation deficiencies; the SEC's announcement of the results of its 2016 Enforcement Program; and the OCIE's examination of whistleblower rule compliance.

• Ropes & Gray's public service commitment is a hallmark of the firm, rooted in the example set by the firm's founders nearly a century and a half ago. To highlight just some of our global efforts, we produced a new video about our pro bono program. The segment highlights a few of the pro bono initiatives driving positive social change in our local communities and around the world.

• Finally, for the ninth consecutive year, the firm was named a “Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality,” receiving a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2017 Corporate Equality Index, a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. To earn the ranking, Ropes & Gray met criteria relating to non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits and transgender-inclusive health care benefits, among others. Earlier in the year, the firm was ranked #1 for overall diversity and #2 for LGBT diversity in the 2016 Vault survey of top U.S. law firms.