Sorainen: making an impact by using our knowledge of law

Sorainen is a fully integrated international business law firm with offices in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. We closely partner with businesses – local and international – to fulfil our core purpose: to increase prosperity in the Baltic States and Belarus by helping clients succeed in business. We offer a wide range of legal and tax advice, including in the field of life sciences and healthcare.

A leading legal advisor in life sciences and healthcare

With its combination of pharma know and legal how, Sorainen has fulfilled the needs of many life sciences and healthcare businesses. From patent litigation to complex business restructurings. From review and analysis of systems for patient access to medicines, to cross-border advice on regulatory, competition and compliance legal issues. From representing Big Pharma and boutique pharma clients before state authorities to assisting with large national-level projects, such as implementing medicine verification systems. Sorainen provides the international level of service that global-level players expect and applies a risk management system to meet rigorous standards.

“Complex and specific assignments require increasingly specialised legal assistance. Having a regional team focused on the healthcare and life sciences sector enables us to achieve this level of specialisation and know-how among our lawyers. Belonging to the team is a true privilege and a source of daily motivation,” emphasises Lise-Lotte Lääne, Head of the Life Sciences and Healthcare sector group at Sorainen Estonia. 

Supporting health innovation with pro bono advice

Last year, we launched the Shared Mission programme, providing EUR 100,000 worth of free legal and tax advice annually. Our main focus for 2021 is health, both physical and mental. As the pandemic has taken its toll, Sorainen has been eager to help good initiatives that make it easier to cope with its impact. This year’s successful applicants include NGOs working with refugees and homeless people, and others dealing with mental health and waste reduction issues, as well as several health startups, including companies operating online platforms for health workers or offering services for cancer screening. Previously supported initiatives include:

• Selfdiagnostics, a molecular diagnostics platform that enables the development of a wide range of medical tests – we advised on investment and M&A matters
• Mano Daktaras, a portal for finding doctors and booking appointments – we advised on telemedicine regulation and GDPR matters while they were developing a remote medical service system
• Terappio, an online psychology consultation platform – we advised on agreement drafting, taxation models and GDPR matters
• E-greitoji, a platform bringing together volunteer doctors working with sick or isolated patients – we advised on telemedicine regulation matters
• Mindletic, a mobile app designed to offer psychological support globally – we advised on consumer rights, regulation and data protection matters

Sharing knowledge in the Connected Health Cluster

“Specializing in legal issues in the field of healthcare and medicine we want to contribute to Estonian healthcare in broader sense. As we repeatedly had contacts and common activities with the cluster and its members, the idea arose to join the cluster and share our legal knowledge more widely through the cluster as well,” Lääne explains.

“In the field of healthcare, resolving legal issues is often vital. Therefore, it requires a big and sensitive picture – in most cases, legal knowledge is not enough to come up with the best solution in this domain,” Lise-Lotte Lääne stresses.