Litigation partner moves back to Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird has strengthened its patent practice in Hamburg with the return of an experienced litigation partner, who has worked elsewhere in recent years. The firm now has two litigation partners in Hamburg.
7 July 2025 by Christina Schulze
Anna Wolters-Höhne worked at Bird & Bird from 2004 to 2021. She initially joined the Düsseldorf life sciences litigation team led by Oliver Jüngst. In 2012, she became a partner and later moved to the Hamburg office to bolster the team there, establishing herself as a renowned litigator.
Wolters-Höhne worked closely with Bird & Bird’s other teams, mainly from Düsseldorf, primarily for originators and generics manufacturers in life sciences and for medical device manufacturers. On the originator side, she worked for Takeda, for example. For Gilead, she 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 devices sector, Wolters-Höhne gained experience representing Edwards Lifesciences in its dispute with Meril.
Other pastures
Wolters-Höhne left Bird & Bird in 2021 and initially worked in her own law firm. In 2023, she joined the partnership of Allen & Overy, now A&O Shearman, to strengthen the life sciences patent litigation practice, but left a year later.
The team at A&O Shearman currently has three partners. Stephan Neuhaus leads the life sciences work from Düsseldorf, primarily for originators. The team is currently coordinating the battle for Xarelto on behalf of Bayer, for example. Denise Benz and Jan Ebersohl lead tech litigation from Munich, respresenting core client Samsung, for example.
Close interoffice teamwork
Wolters-Höhne will join Bird & Bird’s Hamburg team, which has now grown. There she will be able to resume the interoffice life sciences work, such as for Teva.
In May, Bird & Bird appointed Annika Lückemann as a partner in Hamburg. She represents NanoString against Bruker, for example, with Oliver Jüngst’s team.
The teams in Hamburg and Düsseldorf also work together in numerous other life sciences and medical devices cases, such as the GSK vs Pfizer case at the UPC.
In addition, Hamburg is also home to a large patent attorney team around Felix Landry and Felix Harbsmeier. It primarily handles tech litigation, often cooperating with Christian Harmsen’s litigation team in Düsseldorf.
