Leading FDA Lawyer Joins Covington's Life Sciences Practice
August 31, 2016
LOS ANGELES—Wade Ackerman has joined Covington as a partner in its Food, Drug, and Device practice, resident in Los Angeles.
Until June 2016, Mr. Ackerman served as Senior FDA Counsel to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. In this role, he has been intimately involved in legislative initiatives, oversight hearings, and other Senate activities concerning the FDA and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and has interacted extensively with legal, policy, and government relations staff at companies marketing products regulated by the FDA. He worked closely with the FDA and other stakeholders as Congress examined legislative reforms in key areas, including drug and device innovation, health software, diagnostics/LDTs, cosmetics, and over-the-counter drugs.
Prior to his role in the Senate, Mr. Ackerman served for over five years as Associate Chief Counsel in the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel, where he was responsible for providing legal advice to FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and the Office of Commissioner on a wide range of legal and regulatory issues. He also helped develop and implement the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 and the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012—both significant reforms to FDA’s regulatory authorities.
“Wade’s depth of substantive life sciences expertise, high profile in the industry, and government experience with FDA issues, in both the legislative and executive branches, position him as a leading food, drug, and device lawyer,” said Denise Esposito, co-chair of Covington’s Food, Drug & Device group. “His experience working on FDA-related reforms, both from within the FDA and on the Hill, together with his substantive expertise, will make his counsel highly sought after by companies around the world.”
“I look forward to working with my colleagues to expand Covington’s presence in life sciences and to grow the offerings of our West Coast practice,” Mr. Ackerman said. “In particular, the Los Angeles office’s entrepreneurial atmosphere provides the ideal platform to build my practice and counsel FDA-regulated clients amid a period of unprecedented change.”
Mr. Ackerman received a B.S. in Biology magna cum laude from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
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