Program on the Legal Profession
Harvard Law School
23 Everett Street, #G-24
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: + 1 (617) 496-6151
Fax: + 1 (617) 496-8489
E-mail: eramanathan@law.harvard.edu |
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Erik Ramanathan is Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession and its Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry. His research interests include the role, structure and dynamics of in-house legal departments; the relationship between in-house attorneys and law firm counsel; the role and development of specialized legal professionals such as corporate secretaries and compliance officers; globalization of private and public sector law practice; developing market incentives for increasing attorney diversity; the evolution and future of private sector pro bono commitments; and issues of diversity, career progression and professional development among legally trained professionals across and between disparate practice sectors. Erik is particularly focused on involving current and future legal practitioners in proactively shaping and reinventing their profession.
Prior to joining HLS, Erik was Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer of ImClone Systems, a large-cap public biotechnology firm researching and commercializing novel targeted oncology therapeutics. Tapped as General Counsel of this $6 billion enterprise with eight in-house lawyers and a $20 million legal budget as an openly gay 33-year old, Erik’s six years at ImClone were an immersive crash course in the professional challenges of both enormous success and daunting and well-publicized legal, regulatory and governance crises. Negotiating and implementing the then-largest commercial biotechnology deal of all time and helping launch one of the world’s most successful oncology drug franchises while managing and cleaning up after insider trading scandals, shareholder and federal lawsuits, regulatory distrust, pharmaceutical partner disputes, Congressional and SEC inquiries, tax troubles, stock exchange delisting, three CEO transitions, a proxy battle with Carl Icahn, and a public M&A auction process for sale of the company have given Erik unique insight into the challenges of modern legal practice and a keen appetite for finding new ways of addressing and adapting to them.
Full Bio
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