Bloomberg Law
Aug. 24, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

Gilead Sciences’ GC Is Sick of Conflict Waivers

Blake Edwards

For Brett Pletcher, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of biotechnology giant Gilead Sciences, advance conflict waivers are a big pet peeve.

“I’ve always pushed back on these with the firms, saying, ‘Look, how can you ask me to waive something? I don’t even know what the conflict is.’”

But for the moment, given the ubiquity of these agreements, there’s not much Pletcher can do about them. He estimated that 95 percent of law firms require conflict waivers, and his negotiations with firms usually occur “around the edges.”

“Firms are trying to preserve a level of optionality to either represent ...

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