Charity Williams

Charity brings a wealth of business acumen to her legal practice, representing both public and privately held life sciences companies in complex licensing and corporate partnering transactions. With a focus on strategic collaborations, license agreements, territory-specific licenses, and co-development, co-promotion and profit-sharing relationships, Charity offers a unique blend of legal and business insight and is recognized for her comprehensive advisory role. Her experience extends to handling options to purchase and earn-out structures in the context of mergers and acquisitions, and she also offers guidance on day-to-day matters encompassing licensing, supply, distribution, clinical trials and vendor services.

Having served as a dedicated member of the board of directors of Athena for six years, concluding her term in December 2023, Charity is deeply committed to leadership development for women in the life sciences, healthcare, defense, technology and related business communities. Her contributions have been recognized through prestigious accolades, such as the San Diego Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business and Leaders in Law.

Prior to rejoining Cooley, Charity navigated the entrepreneurial path, running her own practice where she successfully represented life sciences and technology companies in corporate and intellectual property litigation matters. Her extensive experience also includes serving as the chief business officer and in-house counsel for Catheter Connections, a medical device developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Notably, Charity’s diverse background extends to leadership positions in the medical device industry, having served as interim CEO of Veritract, a startup medical device company, and director of marketing for ZEVEX (Moog Medical Devices Group). She made significant contributions as a senior associate at the University Venture Fund, executing life sciences venture capital and growth equity investments. She also led her team to victory, securing the Life Sciences Grand Prize at the Carnegie Mellon McGinnis Venture Competition while serving as an associate at the Lassonde New Venture Development Center.

Recognized for her achievements, Charity is a recipient of an In-Awe Award from the Medical Marketing Association. During her academic journey at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, she earned prestigious distinctions, including election to the Order of the Coif and membership in the Utah Law Review.

Representative transactions

• Enlaza Therapeutics in its strategic collaborations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals (2025)
• Capstan Therapeutics in its up to $2.1 billion acquisition by AbbVie (2025)
• SiteOne Therapeutics in its up to $1 billion acquisition by Eli Lilly (2025)
• Avenzo Therapeutics in its global license agreement with DualityBio (2025)
• MannKind in its $500 million senior secured credit facility with Blackstone (2025)
• Medicxi and other venture capital investors in Sanofi’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Vicebio (2025)
• Advanced Instruments, a subsidiary of Patricia Industries, in its acquisition of Nova Biomedical (2025)
• EsoBiotec in its up to $1 billion acquisition by AstraZeneca (2025)
• Kura Oncology in its global co/co strategic partnership with Kyowa Kirin (2024)
• ARS Pharmaceuticals in its strategic partnership with ALK-Abello (2024)
• Radionetics Oncology in its $1 billion strategic agreement with Eli Lilly (2024)
• Tentarix Biotherapeutics in its collaborations and acquisition options with Gilead Sciences (2023) and AbbVie (2024)
• Poseida Therapeutics in its research collaboration with Takeda (2021)
• Shoreline Therapeutics in its collaborations with Gilead Sciences and BeiGene (2021)
• Janux Therapeutics in its collaboration and license agreement with Merck (2020)
• ArcherDX in its up to $2.3 billion sale to Invitae (2020)

Publications

• Author, “Misperceptions Matter: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Protects Employees from Discrimination Based on Misperceived Religious Status,” Utah Law Review 357, 2008