Carolyn Compton, president and chief executive of the Critical Path Institute, isn’t persuaded that her pro bono counsel at Paul Hastings appreciates their value. C-Path, as it is known, is attempting to streamline the development process for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostic methods to provide the developing world with lifesaving therapies. Paul Hastings, she said, has become its de facto general counsel.
Compton pointed, for example, to the firm’s help winning C-Path recognition by the European Medicines Agency as a “small and medium-sized enterprise” (SME) last year. “The challenge was to prove that this nonprofit that does not make or sell anything is a commercial enterprise,” said Joseph O’Malley, co-chairman of the intellectual property practice, but the team uncovered precedents that did just that. The work saved C-Path “an order of magnitude” in agency fees, Compton said. Paul Hastings delivered “far above our ability to deal with the legal and policy nuances, and far above our ability to pay” for that and a dozen other projects.
