Established in 2002, the RTP office of K&L Gates was formed to respond to the unique profile and legal needs of businesses located in the largest research park in the United States. The Research Triangle Park is a globally prominent 7,000 acre high-technology research and development center that is home to more than 170 companies – from Fortune 100 multinational research and development operations, to university spin-outs and start-up operations. The success of the Park reflects its close, strategic proximity to three world-class universities located in nearby Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Combined with our Raleigh office, we are recognized as one of the fastest-growing legal practices in the Triangle region. The principal areas of practice in the RTP office include: health care; land use, zoning and real estate development; corporate transactions; FDA; and public finance.

In the 2011-2012 edition of the U.S. News-Best Lawyers® rankings of “Best Law Firms,” K&L Gates’ Research Triangle Park and Raleigh offices were awarded 15 regional first tier rankings in the following practice areas: Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Commercial Litigation, Corporate Governance Law, Corporate Law, Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law, Eminent Domain and Condemnation Litigation, Environmental Law, Health Care Law, Land Use & Zoning Law, Land Use & Zoning Litigation, Private Equity Law, Private Funds/Hedge Funds Law, Real Estate Law, Real Estate Litigation and Venture Capital Law.

A focal practice of the RTP office is health care, with one of the largest health care advisory teams in the Southeast serving a national client base. Our health law group provides legal and professional consulting services to a wide spectrum of clients, including academic medical centers and research institutions, hospitals and health systems, pharmaceutical companies, long term care facilities, physician groups and numerous specialty providers. Our health care team assists clients on the full array of legal issues facing health care providers in an ever-changing and highly complex, regulated industry. Our services include representation in certain core service lines: regulatory, transactional, operational/risk management and litigation. Our regulatory know-how in the areas of fraud and abuse, false claims, Stark and related reimbursement matters is nationally recognized. This experience is augmented by the assistance of in-house public-to-private conversions, multi-provider system development, mergers, acquisitions, and scope of assistance on patient care, medical staff, EMTALA, and other operational concerns as well to clients only requiring selective support or certain specialty experience in these areas. Litigators within our health care practice also represent clients on a wide range of matters at all state and federal levels, including certificate of need, licensure and certification, reimbursement, medical staff and managed care disputes.

Another vital practice in the RTP office is the land use, zoning and real estate development group. These highly experienced attorneys are routinely called upon to handle complex, high-profile North Carolina real estate matters in and around the Research Triangle Park, across North Carolina and on the coast. The group has successfully helped clients obtain development permits for multiple large commercial, mixed-use and residential developments; have defended permits issued to major regional developers in litigation brought in multiple fora; and have represented local governments in complex inter-jurisdictional disputes. RTP land use attorneys also have handled matters arising under the jurisdiction of the Coastal Resources Commission. RTP development lawyers have handled some of the largest and most complex real estate transactions undertaken in the Carolinas. Our RTP land use and real estate practice, integrated with its sister practices in Charlotte and Raleigh, represent clients throughout the Southeast and in major markets across the United States.

In the area of life sciences, our corporate and health care attorneys serve a diverse client base, encompassing clinical research organizations, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, health care, biomanufacturing, agricultural sciences, medical devices and information technology. Our clients range from multinational biotechnology enterprises to mid-market U.S. and foreign publicly traded pharmacogenomics companies to local emerging growth drug discovery companies. Our legal services run the gamut of issues affecting this industry segment, including assistance on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate finance, development and research agreements, compliance audits and privacy matters.

Our FDA practice focuses on counseling corporations and individuals on all aspects of FDA regulatory and corporate matters, primarily in the area of pharmaceutical, medical device, and tobacco product regulation as well as related corporate transactional activities. One of our lawyers previously served as in-house General Counsel for an international pharmaceutical company, with responsibilities for all legal activities, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, corporate compliance and litigation oversight. We have represented clients before the FDA, DEA, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and various State Boards of Pharmacy, supervised the filing of numerous ANDAs, 505(b)(2) NDAs, Citizen Petitions and other regulatory filings, and our corporate transactional experience includes negotiation and drafting of licensing, supply, distribution, and asset purchase agreements related to FDA-regulated products.

Attorneys in our RTP office also counsel clients with respect to public finance transactions. Our attorneys have extensive experience in guiding nonprofit hospital clients through the tax-exempt bond issue process. Our public finance expertise includes counseling our developer clients in potential funding opportunities for their real estate projects with Recovery Zone Facility Bonds and Special Assessment Financing. We also have extensive experience in representing underwriters and serving as special disclosure counsel in public finance transactions.