Attorneys Bring High-Profile Corporate Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Experience

RALEIGH (August 8) -- Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton announced today that partners John Erwin, Brian Brown, and Angela Cottrell along with associate Sarah Beth Barnes, joined the firm’s Raleigh office in early August. They are members of Kilpatrick Townsend’s nationally recognized Mergers & Acquisitions Team.   

“It has been a firm objective to offer clients a significant transactional health care and life sciences practice,” said Ben Barkley, Kilpatrick Townsend Corporate Department Chair. “When you combine Kilpatrick Townsend’s deep resources in intellectual property with the expertise of this accomplished team, I am not sure there is another firm better positioned in the corporate life sciences arena. This is absolutely a perfect fit. We welcome the entire team to Kilpatrick Townsend.”  

“Joining a firm that has both an outstanding corporate department and one of the world’s largest and leading intellectual property practices, gives our team the ideal platform to provide collaborative, superior service to clients,” said John Erwin. “Having known and worked with several Kilpatrick Townsend attorneys over the years, we have seen how the firm puts clients first. We look forward to working with our new clients and colleagues.”

Mr. Erwin’s practice focuses on clients in the health care and life sciences industry, including health care providers, technology companies, and leading global corporations. He also works with clients in the industrial and service industries. Mr. Erwin counsels public and private businesses on a wide range of corporate issues, including strategic mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other complex commercial transactions both domestically and internationally. His work has involved numerous transactions in the life sciences space. He has provided corporate advice for companies in a variety of industry sectors. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Erwin spent a decade as in-house counsel with a leading healthcare company. He has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2013 for Biotechnology and Life Sciences Practice and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. Mr. Erwin graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill and received a B.A. from Davidson College. 

Mr. Brown’s practice focuses predominantly on domestic and international clients in the health care and life sciences industry in the areas of mergers, acquisitions, corporate governance issues, complex commercial contracts, and tax. He provides counsel on a wide range of corporate issues, from advising start-ups on business formation and raising capital to representing industry leaders on corporate reorganizations, divestitures, and complex, large-scale mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Mr. Brown has been listed as a “Client Service All-Star” in the area of Corporate/M&A by the prestigious BTI Consulting Group. He graduated from the Emory University School of Law and then received his LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Brown earned a B.A. in History and English, with distinction, from Virginia Tech. 

Ms. Cottrell provides corporate and finance counsel to a wide range of clients, including life sciences companies, nonprofit health care systems, academic medical centers and universities, public companies, and emerging companies. A significant portion of her practice involves counseling clients through complex mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, financing transactions, and global expansion initiatives. Ms. Cottrell also has over two decades of public finance experience, serving as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, bank counsel, and borrower’s counsel on public and private, taxable and tax-exempt bond offerings in North Carolina, Illinois, and Florida.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Cottrell worked as a commercial lender. She graduated from Stetson University College of Law, cum laude. After receiving her B.S., cum laude, from Florida State University she earned an M.B.A. from the University of Central Florida. 

Ms. Barnes works primarily with clients in the health care and life sciences industries, where she advises public and private companies on a wide range of corporate issues, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, financing transactions, and other complex commercial transactions. She graduated from Campbell University School of Law, cum laude, and earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

***