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Provided by Andrea LC Reid
Named among the 10 Most Innovative Lawyers in North America by Financial Times, Andrea is a nationally recognized patent strategist and trusted advisor to clients across the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. As a partner on Cooley’s patent counseling and prosecution team, Andrea brings more than 35 years of experience spanning drug discovery, development and commercialization. Her deep technical knowledge and strategic insight have helped US and European clients secure more than $35 billion in acquisition, investor and partner funding.
Andrea advises on all phases of the business cycle – from early-stage innovation to complex transactions – crafting IP strategies that align with business goals and unlock long-term value. She is particularly known for her work in organic chemistry, small-molecule pharmaceuticals and polymorph IP, and regularly prepares patentability, validity and infringement opinions involving active pharmaceutical ingredients, manufacturing syntheses and formulations.
Before joining Cooley, Andrea served as co-chair of the IP practice and co-lead of the global life sciences group at an Am Law-ranked firm. Her career also includes roles as a patent agent at a global biotech company and as a medicinal and process chemist, where she was an inventor on 14 US patents and co-author of numerous scientific publications. Her rare combination of scientific depth and legal acumen makes her an invaluable partner to life sciences innovators.
In 2025, Andrea was ranked by Chambers USA for Intellectual Property in Massachusetts, which commended her as “incredibly talented and very quick and strategic.” She was also recognized as a leading intellectual property lawyer by The Best Lawyers in America 2025.
Andrea is consistently named an IAM Patent 1000 World’s Leading Patent Practitioner in Massachusetts. In 2025, IAM said that Andrea “leads a squad of exceptionally professional experts in the biotech space,” with one client noting, “Andrea plays an important role at every step of the process, devising IP and business strategies. She excels at deciding what should and shouldn’t be filed, drafting patents, filing them, tracking the applications and guiding her clients through critical decisions.” In 2024, IAM stated that she “earned her plaudits from clientele” by distinguishing herself “at the strategy level,” with one client noting, “Andrea understands very deeply the complex relationship between IP value/risk and the demands of developing a business, helping us navigate where exposure is warranted.” In 2023, IAM described her as “renowned for growing portfolios and developing strategies to attract funding from investors and executing complex transactional deals.” In a previous edition, IAM said, “[C]hief patent counsel look to hire … Andrea Reid at every available opportunity for [her] perspicacious strategic, policy and business advice and favourable prosecution and portfolio development outcomes. ‘An intelligent and fun lawyer to work with, Andrea is nothing short of amazing. The applications she is responsible for are superbly written, with creative claim sets, and her portfolios are some of the cleanest, best managed you’ll ever see.’” She was named a Strategy 300 Global Leader in 2022 and a World’s Leading IP Strategist in 2021 by IAM Strategy 300.
In 2024, Andrea was named one of World IP Review’s 50 Most Influential Women in IP and listed as a top IP lawyer in its World Intellectual Property Report (WIPR) Leaders 2024 guide. In 2023, she was named Patent Strategy Attorney of the Year – Massachusetts by LMG Life Sciences, an honor she also received in 2020. She was named among the Top 250 Women in IP by Managing Intellectual Property in 2022 and is routinely named an IP STAR for both patent and transactions in Massachusetts by the same publication.
In 2021, Andrea was named to Expert Guides’ Best of the Best USA guide for Life Sciences and its Women in Business Law 2021 list. In 2020, she was named to National Law Journal’s Intellectual Property Trailblazers list and recognized by Profiles in Diversity Journal in the publication’s Women Worth Watching in STEM Awards, which were established to celebrate women leaders who break barriers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She was also shortlisted for Best in Life Sciences by Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Americas Awards 2020. She is routinely named a Life Sciences Star by LMG Life Sciences, regularly named a Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star, and was named among the Top Women of Law in 2017 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
In 2019 and 2020, Andrea was selected to serve on Law360’s Life Sciences Editorial Board as an official life sciences resource for Law360 editorial staff. In 2018, Financial Times highly commended her work for developing the innovative IP strategy that underpinned drug discoverer Nimbus Therapeutics’ novel agreement with Celgene Corporation. Similarly, in 2016, Financial Times honored her as one of just 10 individuals shortlisted as Legal Innovator of the Year. She also won the Legal Expertise category – Enabling Clients to Innovate – for her work on behalf of Nimbus.
Andrea’s publications, presentations and speaking engagements include:
• Speaker, “The Patent Genus is Alive and Well,” The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) Life Sciences Conference 2024, Tortworth, UK, November 2024
• Author, “Skinny Labels and the Line Between Mere Information and Inducement to Infringe in ANDA Litigation,” May 8, 2018
• Speaker, “Life-Sciences Patent Network North America: Protecting Innovation in a Changing Landscape,” Boston, April 26, 2018
• Speaker, Managing Intellectual Property US Patent Forum 2018, New York, March 13, 2018
• Author, “Employees in All But Name: Where’s the Privilege?” July 11, 2017
• Speaker, “Emerging Role of Biotechs, Academics and Non-Profits,” Third Drug Discovery Re-Invented Conference, Cancun, February 21, 2017
• Speaker, Managing Intellectual Property Life Sciences Forum 2016, New York, September 14, 2016
• Author, “Fed. Circ. Clarifies Doctrine of Equivalents in ANDA Litigation,” July 19, 2016
• Speaker, “Recent Developments in Obviousness – A Pharma Perspective,” Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Law Seminar, Munich, September 22, 2015
• Speaker, “Patent Ruling Leaves Lingering Questions on License Agreements,” Suffolk University Law School, Boston, February 1, 2014
• Speaker, “Have Prometheus & Myriad Changed the World?” Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, October 1, 2013
• Speaker, “America Invents Act,” Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann client seminar, Munich, September 1, 2013
• Speaker, “Intellectual Property Advisor for the Blavatnik Fellowship,” Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, January 1, 2013
• Speaker, “US Patent Prosecution: Best Practices,” Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann client seminar, Munich, September 1, 2011
• Speaker, “Commercializing Technology,” Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, January 1, 2011
• Speaker, “Intellectual Property for Chemists: Feed Your Inner Geek,” Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society, Boston, February 1, 2010
• Speaker, “How Changes in Patent Law Alter Patent Prosecution, Litigation and Licensing,” Boston Patent Law Association and Suffolk University Law School, Boston, September 1, 2009
• Speaker, “A Change in Climate: IP Strategies for Crystal Forms in View of Recent Changes in US Patent Law,” IQPC Conference, London, December 1, 2007
Provided by Chambers
Andrea Reid of Dechert regularly handles patent strategy, IP diligence and disputes for clients from a wide variety of industries.
Provided by Chambers
She is incredibly talented and very quick and strategic.
She is incredibly talented and very quick and strategic.