Former Novartis Group General Counsel and Executive Committee member Thomas Werlen joined Quinn Emanuel in February as a partner. Thomas divides his time between London and Zurich. A truly international lawyer with a thorough background in both common and civil law, Thomas has practiced in the US, UK, Germany and Switzerland. In addition to English, he is fluent in German, French, Italian and Spanish. He will become part of our worldwide life sciences, white collar and international arbitration groups, among others.
Thomas has broad experience across multiple disciplines from products liability to intellectual property to white collar and government investigations to commercial litigation and arbitration. He has particular expertise in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining Novartis, Thomas was a partner at Allen & Overy (in London) and before that he worked at Cravath, Swaine & Moore (in New York and London). While at Allen & Overy and Cravath, he represented clients in all types of international banking and capital markets transactions, including complex financial transactions such as derivatives, CDOs and other structured-finance products. He was also involved in regulatory matters before the SEC, the CFTC, and other capital markets regulators. Thomas has also advised governments all over the world regarding the implementation of new bankruptcy legislation. Thomas has been repeatedly recognized by journals like the IFLR as one of the top capital markets lawyers globally, and he is a member of the panel of experts of P.R.I.M.E. Finance.
Thomas is a summa cum laude law graduate from the University of Zurich (Ph.D.) and holds a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the New York and the Swiss bars. He is a seasoned lecturer on finance, banking and securities law, and corporate law and corporate governance. He has published a number of books and articles in the areas of derivatives, capital markets and corporate governance.