The Week at Ropes & Gray

This week, Ropes & Gray attorneys guided clients on a divestiture and an acquisition, and took on a pro bono case with the ACLU to help a Guatemalan family obtain asylum. Attorneys also provided commentary on key developments in private equity law, litigation and government enforcement, and released a podcast on ESG and corporate social responsibility issues. Here’s a summary of the week’s highlights: 

• Allergan is divesting the global rights to a clinical-stage inflammatory disease gastrointestinal drug to British drug maker AstraZeneca. The divestiture is being made in part to satisfy the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s and the European Commission’s requirements in connection with U.S. biopharmaceutical company AbbVie’s $63 billion merger with Allergan. Ropes & Gray is representing Allergan in the transaction.
• Lakeview Capital acquired The Mochi Ice Cream Company, makers of My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream and the largest branded manufacturers of mochi ice cream in North America. Ropes & Gray advised an investment fund managed by Lakeview Capital on the acquisition.
• Secondaries Investor released a video examining the private equity secondaries market in 2019 and the outlook for 2020. In the video, asset management partner Isabel Dische offers her take on upcoming trends in secondaries, including a prediction for the fund restructuring market. Isabel also provided commentary on the secondaries market in The Wall Street Journal Pro Private Equity.
• In a new Ropes & Gray podcast on ESG and corporate social responsibility issues, asset management partner Eve Ellis discusses the European Securities and Markets Authority’s recent report on undue short-term pressure on companies, as well as the issues highlighted in the report.
• In Global Investigations Review, litigation & enforcement partner Ryan Rohlfsen discusses the raid by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of a Baltimore law firm, and how the use of a privilege dispute could affect the Department of Justice’s use of filter teams.
• Ropes & Gray and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of a Guatemalan migrant and his son, who were returned to Mexico from the United States under the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” while applying for asylum. The motion seeks to allow the father and son to enter and remain in the United States while the court considers their asylum case.
• Law360 published the first two “Practice Group of the Year” profiles about our health care and private equity practices, quoting partners David Blittner, Neill Jakobe, Tim McCrystal and Debbie Gersh. Profiles of our fund formation, white collar and securitization groups will be published in February.
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