Ropes & Gray Launches European Life Sciences Regulatory Practice with Appointment of Lincoln Tsang

Global law firm Ropes & Gray has strengthened its industry-leading life sciences practice with the appointment of Dr. Lincoln Tsang, one of world’s leading lawyers in the field, as a partner and head of its European Life Sciences practice, based in London. 

Dr. Tsang – a former senior UK regulator and advisor to numerous EU and global governmental authorities, qualified in law, medical and pharmaceutical science – joins the firm’s industry-leading Life Sciences Regulatory & Compliance practice to lead its European Life Sciences practice. 

Lincoln specializes in advising clients on UK, EU and cross-border regulatory compliance and enforcement, including litigation, internal investigations and public policy matters concerning the life sciences industry.  Clients will benefit from his experience working closely with leading companies on developing strategies for research and development, product life-cycle management, product acquisition, and risk and crisis management. He also regularly represents clients before various regulatory bodies on a wide range of matters, including clinical trials, product approval, advertising and promotion, manufacture, safety vigilance, and health technology appraisal for pricing and reimbursement for medicines and medical devices. 

He has appeared before various legislatures as an independent expert on product approval and market access of medical products. He is the first lawyer outside the United States to testify in a congressional hearing before the United States Senate as an expert on matters concerning access to treatments for rare diseases. 

“Lincoln Tsang is the kind of lawyer for which Ropes & Gray is renowned. He has the intellectual heft and rich experience to guide clients in an industry – life sciences – defined by complexity and he is the best in the world at what he does,” said David Djaha, managing partner of Ropes & Gray.  “He will lead our efforts to bring our signature business counsel for life sciences companies to Europe at a critical time for this industry.” 

Lincoln, who joins from a US-headquartered law firm, is the fourth partner to join Ropes & Gray in London in past eight months. He follows the appointments of funds partner Tom Alabaster, and restructuring partner Matt Czyzyk in 2020. 

Lincoln is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading life sciences regulatory lawyers. For many years, he has been ranked as a band one leading lawyer for Regulatory: Life Sciences/Pharma in both Europe and the UK by the Chambers directory, which notes his knowledge of ‘the ins and outs of the regulatory landscape and his network of contacts’. He is also recognized as a leading individual by Chambers Global, as well as by Legal 500 UK, which reports clients describing him as ‘fabulous’. 

Before moving into private practice, Lincoln was head of biologicals/biotechnology and a senior official at the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority.  He has also served as an advisor to the European Medicines Agency, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, the British Pharmacopoeia Commission, and the World Health Organization, among others. 

At Ropes & Gray, Lincoln joins one of the world’s leading health care and life sciences industry law firms.  The firm won nearly every health care-focused legal industry award in 2020, including the FT’s Innovative Lawyers 2020 top honour for guiding clients through the COVID-19 pandemic. Other awards included being named Law Firm of the Year for Health Care by The American Lawyer, U.S. News - Best Lawyers, and Law360 (an award the firm has won for the second year in a row). 

Greg Levine, head of the firm’s Life Sciences Regulatory & Compliance practice, said: “We are thrilled to add Lincoln’s expertise to our firm’s life sciences offering.  Combining Lincoln’s leadership in Europe with our existing industry-leading practices in the U.S. and China gives us unprecedented global reach, with top-caliber life sciences regulatory law experts in all of those regions.  In recent years, this international capability has become increasingly important to our firm’s global life sciences client base.”