Leads complex patent litigation disputes, with an emphasis on high-stakes trial work

Represents clients in pharmaceutical and life sciences patent matters, including Hatch-Waxman disputes

Handles patent disputes across a broad range of technologies, including medical devices and consumer products

Jason Leonard is a prominent intellectual property trial lawyer and litigator based in New York City. He brings a unique combination of deep scientific expertise and extensive courtroom experience to high-stakes life sciences and patent disputes. During his nearly 20 years of practice, he has represented numerous companies looking to resolve disputes though both litigation and arbitration. Jason’s legal experience spans all stages of dispute resolution, including pre-suit investigations, multiple-defendant litigations, and appeals. In developing trial and litigation strategies, he uses his passion for science and mastery of pharmaceutical research and development to simplify the intricacies of drug development into concise and compelling narratives for trial.

Jason spends a substantial portion of his time representing innovator clients as plaintiffs in Hatch-Waxman Act litigation. His legal experience covers a wide array of pharmaceutical technologies, including small molecule drugs and peptides, cancer therapies, oral contraceptives, steroids, antifungal agents, anticholinergics, β3-agonists, pharmacologic stress agents, and sleep medications. He has successfully defended patents covering new chemical compounds, as well as complex inventions covering formulations, polymorphs, and methods of treatment. Clients often turn to him to address difficult infringement issues, particularly when design-around defenses have been asserted and extensive testing evidence will be required for trial. He has also represented clients in inter-partes review and interference proceedings in the US Patent and Trademark office.

Jason also advises clients on intellectual property due diligence and licensing matters, including strategic company and product acquisitions. As part of this process, he leverages his extensive litigation and industry experience to help guide clients through these transactions.

Before attending law school, Jason spent six years as a pharmaceutical chemist at an innovator pharmaceutical company where he specialized in analytical and solid-state chemistry. His scientific research resulted in more than a dozen patents and patent applications, including patents covering the cholesterol medication atorvastatin. His industry experience has become indispensable to clients as they often request his thorough analysis of the technology as part of their litigation and trial strategies.

Nicolette Kost De Sèvres focuses her practice on global investigations, compliance and regulatory enforcement matters. A former financial regulator and general counsel of a large, listed company, she has over 24 years of experience in compliance, white-collar crime and financial regulation. Nicolette serves as co-head of McDermott Will & Schulte’s global investigations and compliance practice.

Nicolette has practiced in Paris, London, Sydney, Washington, DC, and Montreal, including at the New York Stock Exchange in Paris (NYSE Euronext) and the Royal Bank of Scotland in London. She also served as chief of staff and advisor to the president of the Financial Markets Authority in Canada under two different presidents.

Nicolette has a wealth of experience in anti-corruption and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance both in Europe and globally. She handles corporate and regulatory investigations, risk assessments, and due diligence compliance, including Know Your Client (KYC) regulations. Nicolette also represents clients before enforcement agencies and regulators in Europe, Canada and the United States, such as the new French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) and assists them in compliance, investigations and regulatory matters related to regulators such as ESMA the AMF, ACPR, CFTC, SEC, the World Bank and other multilateral banks.

Nicolette advises financial institutions and global and local companies on preventive measures. She is a sought-after advisor in complex white-collar crime matters, building and strengthening local and global compliance programs, preparing or conducting risk assessments and mapping, whistleblowing systems, compliance programs, World Bank Integrity Guidelines, the French Loi Sapin II, Loi sur le devoir de vigilance, FCPA, UKBA, EU Directives relating to whistleblower protection, ESG reporting, EU financial regulation (including MIFID, EMIR, AIFMD, BASEL, BRDD, AML, PDS2, SEPA) and FinTech regulation. Additionally, she has a special insight on the military and defense sectors in the United States and France.

A known thought leader in the global market, Nicolette is a sought-after writer and speaker on compliance, enforcement, business ethics, international financial markets and the effects of regulation on financial systemic risk, derivatives, high-frequency trading and the legal framework of European financial markets.

She is the author of the book International Economic Law, numerous articles in compliance and investigations and one of the first articles on DLT, “Blockchain Revolution: An Analysis of Regulation and Technology Related to Distributed Ledger Technologies.” She teaches compliance, investigations and FinTech.

Sabine Naugès counsels clients on all aspects of public law, including administrative and regulatory, competition and constitutional law. Among other high-profile clients, Sabine has advised telecommunications companies France Télécom and Orange on regulatory matters in cases before administrative and commercial courts, and before EU and French competition authorities. She also regularly represents major companies with interests in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, energy, oil and gas, and public health care, before the French government and in litigation, in a range of regulatory and administrative matters.

Sabine has taught administrative, regulatory and energy law at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and she teaches petroleum and mining law in the framework of the energy law program of the same university. Sabine has served for three years as in-house counsel in a major, publicly owned company.

Sabine has written numerous articles for French administrative law reviews. She co-authored the Concurrence, Régulation et Secteur Public (Antitrust, Regulation and Public Sector) chapter of the Contrats, Concurrences, Consommation (Contracts, Antitrust and Consumption) Law Review.