McDermott Will & Emery has made a key hire for its life sciences transactions practice with the hire of M&A expert Johannes Eckhardt from German pharma giant Merck.
Eckhardt is making the move back to private practice after nearly four years in-house, and will join the US firm’s Frankfurt office as a partner this September.
He joined Merck in September 2021 and held a number of positions at the company, covering digital, data and corporate affairs, most recently serving as head of legal for M&A, ventures and finance.
Eckhardt brings extensive experience of cross-border deals, particularly in the life sciences and tech sectors. While at Merck he played a key role on the company’s acquisition of American life sciences company Mirus Bio and the sale of Calypso Biotech to Novartis, among other transactions.
Before moving in-house he spent nine years in Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s Frankfurt office, focusing on M&A, venture capital and private equity, rising to the role of counsel.
The hire for McDermott comes as the firm gears up to merge with fellow US firm Schulte Roth & Zabel, with the combined firm set to go live on 1 August. The merged firm, which will have revenue of more than $2.8bn – enough to place it on the edge of the top ten largest firms in the world – will take the name McDermott Will & Schulte, and will have more than 1,750 lawyers in total across more than 20 offices around the world.
McDermott Germany managing partner Matthias Kampshoff cited Eckhardt’s ‘deep understanding of the life sciences and technology sectors’ and ‘proven ability to lead sophisticated cross-border deals’, while global transactions head Harris Siskind added that his ‘experience advising on transformative deals and strong relationships with key players in the life sciences and investment communities’ would be ‘significant assets for the firm’s clients’.
Merck’s legal leadership includes group general counsel Tina Sandmann, who is based in Darmstadt, where the company is headquartered, and US-based vice president and general counsel Jennifer Zachary, a former partner at Covington & Burling.
