Client industry · November 2026
Pharma & Biotech: who advises the sector
Dated deals for pharma & biotech clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 3,276
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +14.5%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $250m
- Median disclosed value
- 1,359
- Distinct clients
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 3,276 dated deals for Pharma & Biotech clients. Year on year, on windows that end a month early, the deal count grew 14.5% (2,880 to 3,298). The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Capital Markets is involved in 53.1% of these deals and Corporate & M&A in 23.4%. By deal type, Capital markets is involved in 52.4% of these deals and M&A in 17.5%.
Deal value was disclosed on 25.6% of them; where disclosed, the median was $250 million. 1,359 distinct clients appear across the window.
Cooley ranks first among advising firms, in the 251-400 band; the full top 10 follows as ranks and bands.
Lawyers whose work centers on Pharma & Biotech changed firm 285 times in the same window. Partners were 49.1% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +2.1%.
For a company in Pharma & Biotech, the adviser table shows where sector experience sits, which is where an in-house hire is most likely to come from.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Deals (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cooley | 251-400 |
| 2 | Goodwin Procter | 251-400 |
| 3 | Latham & Watkins | 151-250 |
| 4 | Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | 151-250 |
| 5 | Ropes & Gray | 101-150 |
| 6 | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 101-150 |
| 7 | Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo | 101-150 |
| 8 | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher | 101-150 |
| 9 | Sidley Austin | 61-100 |
| 10 | Covington & Burling | 61-100 |
Related monitors and reports
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Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- Pharma and Biotech Counsel in 2026: Deals Grow, Specialists Stay
Pharma and biotech companies buy mostly financing work from a small group of firms, and lawyers in Boston and San Diego work on far more of those deals than in technology. The lawyers with real sector depth are patent, litigation and regulatory specialists, and they rarely change firms.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Pharma In-House Hiring: Associates Are Only 30.5% of Movers
Partners are 49.1% of the pharma and biotech lawyers who changed firms in 12 months, associates 30.5%. Companies that recruit out of law firms take mostly associates, so a junior in-house specialist comes from a narrow flow that firms also bid for.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
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