Kirkland & Ellis Leads a Field of 113 Firms on Total Public Matters For Novo and Lilly

Global, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly public matters, Partners, top 20 firms, data as of June 2026

Kirkland & Ellis leads on 92 matters and is the only firm that spans every front, from M&A through patent litigation to product liability defense. Other firms are more specialized, which is what the three key areas below make clear.

Deals Make Up a Third of Novo and Lilly Matters

The largest of the three areas is corporate and finance work: the collaborations, licensing deals, and capital markets activity that build and fund the franchises.

Kirkland & Ellis leads the way, having advised Eli Lilly across numerous deal matters, including their acquisition of Versanis Bio to investigate Bimagrumab’s potential for use alongside glp-1 drugs in retaining muscle.

Morgan Lewis, in third place, notably advised Eli Lilly on its In-license agreement with Chugai for Orforglipron in 2018, which just recently hit US markets as a weight loss glp-1 pill - the new alternative for injections.

Global, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly public matters in corporate/finance, Partners, top 5 firms, data as of June 2026

Finnegan Dominates the Patent Front

Patent work accounts for 101 matters, and it is the most concentrated area on the board.



Finnegan handles 33 of those 101 matters, almost all of them patent litigation for Eli Lilly. No other firm comes close. It is the clearest case of a specialist bench built around protecting one client's products.

Global, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly public matters in patent IP/patent litigation, Partners, top 5 firms, data as of June 2026

Patents are not the only intellectual property work these companies generate. A further 94 matters sit in trademark and general intellectual property work. 

Ropes & Gray and Paul Weiss lead the advisory side with 10 each, and it is also where Pattishall sits: eight of its nine matters are trademark disputes, including Novo Nordisk's oppositions against copycat brands, which is what lifts the boutique into the overall top 10.

Covington Leads the Manufacturers' Product Liability Defense

The third part of the story is the product liability and personal injury defense. Patients allege that the manufacturers' drugs, including Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Trulicity, cause gastrointestinal injuries such as gastroparesis, and that the risks were not adequately disclosed. 

The gastrointestinal claims were consolidated into a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Pennsylvania in 2024, with a separate proceeding covering claims of vision loss. To run the gastrointestinal cases, the court appointed a nine-firm plaintiffs' leadership committee including DiCello Levitt, Motley Rice, and Morgan & Morgan.



On the defense side, Covington & Burling leads with 5 tracked product liability and personal injury matters, just ahead of DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis with 4 each. These counts span the companies' product liability work broadly, not the GLP-1 dockets alone. But with both MDLs still active and the patient population expanding, GLP-1 specific defense matters are likely to grow.

Global, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly public matters in personal injury/product liability, Partners, top 5 firms, data as of June 2026

Note on methodology

Source: Publicly available data tracked by Pirical

Timeframe: Client matter data as of June 2026; lateral hire data covering May 2023 - May 2026.

Scope: Recorded legal matters for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly across all firms and practice areas, limited to Partners.

Caveat: Matter counts reflect publicly visible involvement, not audited market share or billings, and may be slightly incomplete due to limited public information.