Bird & Bird boosts its Corporate practice with the appointment of Life Sciences expert Michiel Wurfbain as a partner in The Hague

Michiel has more than 22 years of experience advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, public to private transactions, as well as securities laws and financial supervision, corporate governance and general corporate matters. He also has significant experience advising both issuers and investment banks on equity capital markets transactions, such as securities offerings in the public and private markets, IPOs, private placements, rights issues and block trades with a particular focus on the life sciences sector. Michiel joins from Simmons & Simmons in Amsterdam.

This appointment is a part of the Corporate practice's strategy to bolster its capabilities across the firm's international network. Michael's arrival follows the recent hire of Corporate partners James Baillieu in London, Ola Lidström and Jan Byström in Stockholm, James Fong in Hong Kong, Anthony Latimer and Steve Johns in Sydney and Bertrand Lévy in Paris. The team also recently hired Emmanuelle Porte in Paris, providing an additional boost to its Corporate Life Sciences & Healthcare group.

Jeroen van der Lee and Marcus Huisman, Co-Heads of Bird & Bird in The Netherlands say: "We are delighted to welcome Michiel to Bird & Bird. His appointment is an important part of our strategy in The Netherlands - to further strengthen our Corporate team and to nurture and develop existing and new relationships both within the practice as well as the tax and notarial practice groups."

Stefano Silvestri and Peter Veranneman, Co-Heads of Bird & Bird's international Corporate practice comment: "Clients are increasingly asking us for advice around M&A activity in the Life Sciences sector making it an area of huge potential and future growth within the Corporate practice.  We are confident that Michiel will succeed in building a lucrative practice and will continue to enhance our Corporate Life Sciences capabilities in Europe. We look forward to welcoming him to the team."

Michiel adds: "I am very enthusiastic about joining Bird & Bird. The firm's sector-based approach is in line with my expertise in the life sciences sector and will provide me with the ideal platform to advise my clients in this area. I am looking forward to meeting my colleagues in the Netherlands and across the firm's international network."