Gilead Sciences Inc. tapped longtime M&A counsel Rick Climan of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP in Palo Alto, Calif., for advice on its $1.4 billion agreement to acquire CV Therapeutics Inc., announced March 12. Cooley took Gilead public in 1992, and Climan advised the company on several acquisitions over the past decade.

In the first of those, Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead bought Nexstar Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $550 million in 1999. Gilead general counsel Gregg Alton worked on that deal as a Cooley associate before joining the company that year. Climan also represented Gilead in its 2001 sale of its oncology assets to OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.; its 2003 purchase of Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $464 million; and its acquisitions of Myogen Inc. for $2.5 billion and Corus Pharma Inc. for $365 million in 2006.

Gilead used several banks on those deals but turned to Alan Hartman and Mark Robinson of Merrill Lynch & Co. on the CV Therapeutics acquisition. Gilead had used David Low Jr. of Lazard on Myogen and Corus, but he represented Astellas Pharma Inc. on the hostile bid for CV that Gilead topped. For legal advice, Astellas turned to Michael Braun and Mike O'Bryan of Morrison & Foerster LLP.

Cooley also took CV Therapeutics public in 1996. But the relationship partner on the account, Alan Mendelsohn, brought the client with him when he joined Latham's Silicon Valley office in 2000. On the banking side, CVT tapped longtime adviser Frederick Frank of Barclays Capital and Jim Katzman at Goldman, Sachs & Co., which had not previously worked for CVT.