Sarah Ashfaq

Sarah Ashfaq is a partner in Goodwin’s nationally recognized Technology Companies & Life Sciences group, counseling clients in a wide variety of industries with a focus on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Serving as her clients’ general or principal outside counsel, Ms. Ashfaq provides strategic advice and general corporate counseling to management teams and boards while leading significant transactions on her clients’ behalf.

Ms. Ashfaq has extensive experience representing a diverse range of companies and investment banks with corporate transactions, securities law and a broad array of financing transactions including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities. She also represents a number of publicly traded biotechnology companies in ongoing SEC compliance and corporate governance matters. Advising companies throughout the full range of the corporate life cycle, Ms. Ashfaq has worked with several of her company-side clients since their initial founding and funding. She joined Goodwin in 2015.

Ms. Ashfaq’s recent client representations include the following:

General Corporate Counseling and Significant Transactions:

• Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. in connection with its $120 million Series B financing and $101 million Series C financing.
• Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in connection with its $127.5 million initial public offering.
• Radius Health, Inc. in connection with its $300 million public offering of convertible senior notes.
• Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. in connection with its $40 million and $65 million follow-on public offerings.
• Assembly Biosciences, Inc. in connection with its $60 million follow-on public offering and $75 million at-the-market equity program.
• BeiGene, Ltd. in connection with its $800 million and $175 million follow-on public offerings.
• Fate Therapeutics, Inc. in connection with its $40 million follow-on public offering.

Underwriter Representations:

• Underwriters, including Cowen and Company, in a $105 million initial public offering by G1 Therapeutics, Inc.
• Underwriters, including Leerink and Piper Jaffray, in $125 million and $84.5 million follow-on public offerings for CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. JonesTrading as sales agent in a $25 million at-the-market equity program for CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc.
• Stifel and Baird in a $48.5 million private investment in public equity for GTx, Inc.
• William Blair as underwriter in a $55 million follow-on public offering for Viking Therapeutics, Inc.
• Leerink and Stifel as underwriters in $251.2 million and $85.5 million follow-on public offerings for Zogenix, Inc.
• Piper Jaffray as placement agent for a registered direct offering of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock for $14.7 million for Altimmune, Inc.
• Leerink and Piper Jaffray in a $50 million follow-on public offering for Synlogic, Inc.
• Canaccord and Needham in a $20 million follow-on public offering for Synacor, Inc.

Ms. Ashfaq is an active leader at Goodwin, dedicated to global initiatives supporting practice management and associate development efforts rooted in Goodwin’s core values. She frequently participates in the firm’s recruiting, training and mentoring efforts. Ms. Ashfaq is also active in Goodwin’s diversity initiatives and previously served on the board of the Muslim Bar Association of New York.