Former Bird & Bird life sciences partner joins Allen & Overy

Anna Wolters-Höhne is joining Allen & Overy. Previously, she worked at Bird & Bird for almost 17 years, focusing on life sciences disputes in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. In May 2021, the partner left the international law firm to devote herself to patent expert opinions and, above all, her family. The 48-year-old lawyer is now returning to the patent litigation business.

Anna Wolters-Höhne

From December 1, Wolters-Höhne will work as a partner in the Hamburg office of Allen & Overy. She will initially be the only patent litigator there. The firm intends to build up a team of associates in the office over the next few months.

In the meantime, the experienced life sciences expert will work closely with the Düsseldorf-based team led by Stephan Neuhaus. With clients such as Bayer, Eli Lilly, Hoffmann-La Roche, MSD, NovoNordisk and Pfizer, the team also has a focus on the life sciences sector.

The patent team in Munich led by Jan Ebersohl, on the other hand, focuses on litigation relating to electronics and mobile phone patents. Internationally, however, the patent teams in Paris and London also have a strong focus on assisting companies from the life sciences industry. Allen & Overy mainly represents originators.

Experienced on both sides

Before her departure, Wolters-Höhne was one of the best-known patent litigators in the German Bird & Bird team. She worked closely with Oliver Jüngst. Unlike Allen & Overy, the practice advises both originators and generics manufacturers. On the originator side she worked for Takeda, for example. For Gilead she has fought against ViiV Healthcare over HIV blockbuster drug Biktarvy. The companies settled the dispute in 2022.

During her time at Bird & Bird, Wolters-Höhne also represented well-known generics manufacturers such as Teva. She also represented Fresenius in the dispute over Eli Lilly’s cancer drug pemetrexed. Furthermore, in the medical device sector, Wolters-Höhne gained experience at the side of Edwards Lifesciences in its dispute with Meril.

Allen & Overy sets sights on Hamburg

Following Wolters-Höhne’s arrival, Allen & Overy’s patent team now has an expert in Hamburg for the first time. The city is home to one of four German local divisions of the Unified Patent Court. The division’s presiding judge, Sabine Klepsch, is considered very experienced in life sciences cases.

Allen & Overy is not the only firm establishing a patent foothold in the city. Bardehle Pagenberg also recently opened an office in Hamburg with the UPC in mind. Wolters-Höhne’s former law firm Bird & Bird set up a patent team here long before the start of the new court in order to provide advice on the UPC and the Hamburg Regional Court.

Jan Ebersohl, head of the German patent law practice at Allen & Overy, says, “Following the appointment of Denise Benz as a partner at the beginning of the year, the addition of Anna Wolters-Höhne is the second strengthening of our practice at partner level.” He adds, “With the expansion of our team, we are creating the conditions to be able to advise our clients even more strongly on resource-intensive cross-border patent disputes.”

David Stone, head of Allen & Overy’s global IP practice, explains, “The life sciences sector is a strategic focus for our firm. With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court, we can offer our clients even greater local support in Germany, both in national proceedings and at the UPC.”

Outside Germany, Allen & Overy has also visibly positioned itself with established patent teams in Paris and London.

Growth with lateral hires

For many years, Allen & Overy did not have a significant patent practice in Germany. In 2012, it initially brought in pharmaceutical specialist Joachim Feldges. As the UPC launch became increasingly certain, the firm accelerated the further expansion of its German patent litigation team.

In 2017, Allen & Overy closed a further gap in Munich by bringing in young partner Jan Ebersohl from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Ebersohl is a specialist in litigation concerning mobile communications and electronics patents.

The next addition came in 2021. Stephan Neuhaus had been a partner at Hogan Lovells, before he moved to Allen & Overy in Düsseldorf. Neuhaus quickly became Feldges’ successor in the life sciences sector when the latter left in 2022 to start his own firm in Munich. Ebersohl took over as head of the German patent practice.

At the beginning of the year, Allen & Overy appointed Denise Benz as a partner. She is primarily active in the mobile communications sector and was recognised by JUVE Patent in 2022 as one to watch in Germany. Allen & Overy now has four patent partners in Germany with Benz, Neuhaus, Ebersohl and Anna Wolters-Höhne. There are also nine associates.

Small but growing patent attorney team

Like many other international law firms, such as Bird & Bird and Hogan Lovells, Allen & Overy has also begun to integrate patent attorneys into its patent team for technical support in litigation.

To date, the German Allen & Overy team has worked with two patent attorneys in Düsseldorf who specialise in life sciences patents. In Munich, the firm has now hired an electronics and mobile communications expert for the first time. He joins as an associate from Hogan Lovells.