Glen Y. Sato Rejoins Cooley Godward's Life Sciences Practice in Palo Alto

4 November 2005

Cooley Godward LLP announced today that Glen Y. Sato will rejoin the Firm's Business Department as a partner in its Life Sciences practice group as of January 1, 2006. He will be based in the Firm's Palo Alto office. Sato joins Cooley from Protein Design Labs (PDL), where he served as Chief Financial Officer. Sato joins a robust corporate transactions practice focused on the needs of the life sciences industry. Since the beginning of 2004, Cooley's Life Sciences practice group has handled 15 IPO's and 27 follow on offerings for life sciences companies. With over 25 years of dedicated service to the life sciences industry, Cooley has built one of the most integrated and comprehensive life sciences legal practices in the country. The Firm has represented nearly half of the companies on the NASDAQ Biotechnology and BioCentury 100(TM) Indices, and more than half of the companies on the AMEX Biotech Index. "We continue aggressively to build the Firm across practice areas and offices, and the addition of Glen Sato and his experience is a significant step for continued growth in our Life Sciences practice group," said Steve Neal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cooley Godward. "We are delighted to welcome him back to the Firm." Sato has served in various legal, financial, operational and strategic planning positions and has been responsible for SEC reporting and compliance, disclosure issues, intellectual property licensing and licensing strategy, general corporate counseling, insider trading compliance and working closely with Boards of Directors and audit committees on various risk and accounting related matters. Along with strong finance capabilities, Sato also brings substantial experience in corporate partnering, international and domestic M&A and other heavily negotiated transactions. "I intend to focus my efforts on corporate finance transactions and counseling for public and private life sciences companies, venture capital investors, and investment banking clients focused on the life sciences market. I can't imagine a better platform from which to build such a practice," said Sato. "The addition of Glen Sato to our Life Sciences practice group enhances our position as an internationally recognized leader in this important practice area," said Barbara Kosacz, national head of Cooley's Life Sciences practice group. "We are delighted to add an attorney of Glen Sato's accomplishments and capabilities to help serve our growing client base of life sciences companies and investors." Glen Sato most recently served as PDL's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He joined PDL from Exelixis, Inc., where he served as SVP, Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel from November 1999 to May 2003. Prior to his time at Exelixis, he served in various legal and strategic planning positions at PDL, including Vice President, Legal and General Counsel. In addition, Sato worked for Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer, Inc. where he served under Doug Ebersole as Associate General Counsel. He was an attorney in Cooley Godward's Business Department in Palo Alto for two years. Sato started his career at Jones, Day in Washington, DC. Sato received his JD and MBA from UCLA, where he was an Associate Editor of the Law Review. Sato is admitted to practice in California and Washington, DC. About Cooley Godward Cooley Godward is an established provider of strategic litigation and business transaction services and a recognized leader in the representation of high-growth private and public companies, financial institutions, venture capital firms and nonprofit organizations. Our singular focus on providing the highest quality legal services has enabled our clients to achieve their strategic business objectives and garnered for Cooley recognition as one of the country's leading law firms. Cooley was recently named to The American Lawyer magazine's 2005 "A List," the publication's annual ranking of "the best of the best" among the nation's top law firms. For additional information please visit http://www.cooley.com.

Source: PR Newswire

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