Pfizer Gets Wiser

December 6, 2006 | Filed Under GC as CEO Springboard, Crisis Planning 

The GC-to-CEO phenomenon is still news, I guess. When something happens to a lawyer-led company, the legal background is often noted.

Today’s Wall Street Journal mentions the ex-GC status of Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler in an article about the cessation of clinical tests of the promising heart drug torcetrapib. As the WSJ sees it:

The debacle has revived doubts on Wall Street about whether Mr. Kindler is the right man to run the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. After all, he joined Pfizer only a few years ago, and before becoming CEO functioned only as general counsel. He won out over two industry veterans with deep experience to get the top job. Does he really have what it takes?

Just how stopping development of a drug because of deaths is a debacle will be left to the biotech or stock-picking bloggers out there. Perhaps someone at Pfizer had heard of Vioxx.

But most lawyers (and any GC) has to love the characterization of Mr. Kindler’s prior Pfizer job history as having “functioned only as general counsel.”

Somehow when US CEOs for decades came from finance or marketing or engineering, those disciplines were seen as good seasoning.

Mr. Kindler made a tough call. One driven by the high risks faced by big pharmas imposed by the FDA process, uneven law and gunslinger plaintiff attorneys. Just ask Merck over the aforementioned Vioxx.

Was his GC experience a liability in this case? I think not. I think it was a clear asset.

And, by the way, the real news is that the Pfizer legal department develops exceptional attorneys who deliver creative, bottom-line solutions.

Mere functioning? Hardly.

Bird Brains

May 9, 2006 | Filed Under Crisis Planning, In the News 

Just in time for tonight’s inevitable made-for-TV avian flu drama on ABC, lawyers see a potential need, and decide to take their best shot.

The law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge has announced that it has experts ready and waiting to deal with potential client concerns related to pandemic planning.

MLA partner John Clerici is in the firm’s government contracts practice, and co-chairs its Biodefense Practice group.

I have written about this before, and it seems sensible that law firms will have to design an approach that balances their expertise and client needs. Should they dust off and re-brand their Y2K practice groups?

The NY Times has a good review of the drama; sounds a bit like “The Andromeda Strain” with geese.

The US Government’s pandemic web site is here, by the way.

MLA partner at work?

here birdy birdy birdy...

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