Member Voices
Mahnu Davar
WLG Key Contact Partner
Arnold & Porter (USA-Washington, DC)
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1. Briefly describe your practice.
Simply put, I am a regulatory lawyer who focuses on complex counseling, compliance, and enforcement issues in the biopharmaceutical, diagnostics, medical device, and healthcare industries. Some areas of emphasis of my practice include clinical trials, relationships between companies and healthcare providers, institutions, and other intermediaries, and innovative licensing and collaboration arrangements between companies and labs, research institutions, marketing partners, and other entities. Personalized medicine and digital health are two exploding growth areas for the USA and many other markets, and I am fortunate to be in a practice area that is at the cutting edge of the regulatory and enforcement trends in those areas.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a reminder of how interconnected the world's medical products infrastructure really is– for better and worse– and so it is natural that though I am an American regulatory lawyer, my practice will necessarily and routinely touch on multi-jurisdictional considerations.
2. You are a Key Contact Partner for your firm, Arnold & Porter. What is the most rewarding part of this role?
I have really enjoyed seeing the sophistication and breadth of my peer WLG practitioner colleagues, many of whom are legends in their legal communities.
3. Could you tell us about a recent client, marketing, or other collaboration with another WLG member firm?
From projects small and large, I have enjoyed working on inbound and outbound matters with our colleagues at member firms in markets ranging from Canada and Australia, to China, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia, among others. I've been honored to work closely with City-Yuwa Partners on a number of regulatory projects in recent years, including an internal investigation at a multinational biopharmaceutical company and a complex regulatory and trade analysis involving market authorization and product stock transfers among an American company and a Japan-based company.
4. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I am a mixed-media visual artist and try to work on at least one big art project a year. I also enjoy cooking, hosting dinner parties (most of these have been outdoors for the last two years!), and cycling.