Orrick Expands Life Sciences & Tech Venture Capital Practice with Boston Duo

• Life sciences and tech company advisors Mark Solakian and Jake Gatof join the firm as partners.
• Leaders in the Boston venture capital ecosystem, Mark and Jake guide companies and their boards and investors through all stages of growth and investment, including financings, strategic collaborations and M&A transactions, primarily focused on the life sciences sector. They join from Wilson Sonsini.
• Mark brings decades of experience advising high-growth companies and their boards – both in law firm practice and as an in-house leader. On the company side, he served as general counsel at Helicos Biosciences, where he led the developer of single-molecule sequencing technology through its IPO, chief corporate counsel at biotech Affymetrix and general counsel at Joule Global Holdings, the international biofuels company.
• Jake is deeply connected in the Boston tech and life sciences ecosystem, with a strong portfolio of biotech, digital health and medical device companies and a proven record helping them scale.
• With these hires, Orrick will have a team of more than 40 tech and life sciences lawyers in its Boston office, which launched in 2019. Last summer, the firm added a 7-lawyer FDA and healthcare regulatory team, based in Boston and Washington, DC, focused on venture-backed companies.
• These additions follow a string of Orrick investments in the tech sector, including the addition earlier this year of a 14-lawyer tech and venture capital team in Los Angeles, doubling the firm’s tech companies presence there.

“Adding Mark, Jake and their team is an incredible opportunity to bring in more top talent and continue to grow our life sciences and tech platform in Boston, a vital market where we want to expand aggressively,” said Orrick Chair Mitch Zuklie. “We set a goal five years ago to grow a world-class cross-disciplinary life sciences and healthtech practice and we’re thrilled with the talent we’ve attracted across transactional, IP, litigation and regulatory disciplines. Last year, we doubled our work in life sciences over 2023 and our tech companies practice had its best year ever. We have no doubt that we will look back at this hire as another transformational moment.”

“Having served in fast-paced in-house roles, I am a true believer in Orrick’s vision of holistic counsel with deep sector insight. We’re in a moment of extraordinary market transition and companies need help not only securing financing and executing strategic collaborations and M&A transactions, but also addressing federal and state regulatory uncertainty, protecting IP, and managing litigation risk,” Mark said. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to build on Orrick’s foundation and offer something special to our clients and the market.”

“AI is transforming the market in life sciences and healthtech – for companies, investors and patients alike. Orrick’s leadership in AI, IP, healthcare regulatory and many other areas that are essential to scaling life sciences and healthtech companies will create opportunities to collaborate and deliver an exceptional level of support to our clients,” Jake added.

Orrick was named a Law360 Tech Practice Group of the Year for the second year in a row in 2024 and has ranked top 5 globally for VC deals for the last eight years (PitchBook). The firm acts for 12 of the 20 largest biopharma companies in the U.S. and 350+ venture-backed companies and investors in the life sciences & healthtech sector.