Current Role
  • Partner, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
  • Practice focuses on drug pricing, consumer access to medications, healthcare fraud, antitrust and patent fraud
  • Court appointed interim lead class counsel in CareFirst of Maryland, Inc. et al. v. Johnson & Johnson et al., a class-action lawsuit representing health benefit providers, accusing Johnson & Johnson of unlawfully delaying the release of biosimilar medications that could compete with its autoimmune medication, Stelara
  • Member of HBSS team representing a proposed class of direct purchasers of Copaxone, a medication that treats multiple sclerosis; the proposed class alleges Teva entities suppressed generic competition for Copaxone by entering into exclusionary contracts with pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and specialty pharmacies that barred generic Copaxone
  • Member of the HBSS team representing a proposed class of insulin consumers in their claims against Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi for unfairly and unconscionably increasing the cost of live-saving insulin medications. HBSS has been named lead counsel in this case
  • Member of the HBSS team litigating claims against GSK for its fraudulent marketing of the diabetes medication, Avandia, a case in which HBSS has been named lead counsel
  • Member of the firm’s legal team representing the Center for American Progress (CAP), the NAACP and a group of over four dozen law scholars on their various amicus submissions in the Inflation Reduction Act Medicare Drug Pricing Negotiation cases. These amicus briefs explain the constitutionality of government price negotiations and price regulations and argue that Congress should be permitted to regulate drug prices not just for the Medicare program but across the industry. They additionally show that the federal government has long used patents and such use does not violate the Fifth Amendment. CAP and NAACP’s briefs demonstrate that affordable access to prescription medications is a key health equity issue for communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, women and people living with disabilities. The IRA’s Medicare drug price negotiation will help to alleviate that unfairness, bringing the United States closer to the goal of achieving health equity.
Recent Success
  • Second chair in four-week federal trial against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The team procured a 60-page Indicative Ruling as to Liability and Remedies finding that the state’s continued licensing of vertical buoy lines to catch lobsters violates the ESA through the deadly threat these lines pose to whales and sea turtles. The opinion relies heavily on the expert testimony of two key witnesses that Ms. Brennan examined and explains that lobster fishing poses an untenable threat to the survival of the North Atlantic right whale.
  • Successful Third Circuit appeal of sealing orders in In re Avandia Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. Hannah briefed and argued the class plaintiffs’ appeal of two district court orders sealing the entire summary judgment record. The Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion adopting the standard the plaintiffs urged for the public’s common law right of access and vacated the district courts’ orders. The Third Circuit also instructed the district court to consider the First Amendment argument the plaintiffs’ advanced. In re Avandia Mktg., Sales Practices & Prod. Liab. Litig., 924 F.3d 662 (3d Cir. 2019). Hannah also successfully briefed the issue on remand to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania: the Court unsealed all of the summary judgment records at issue. In re Avandia Mktg., Sales Practices & Prod. Liab. Litig., No. 07-MD-01871, 2020 WL 5358287 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 3, 2020).
  • Successful Third Circuit appeal of summary judgment ruling in In re Avandia Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. Hannah lead the team that briefed the class plaintiffs’ appeal of the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant. The Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion siding with the plaintiffs on all three issues presented in the appeal. The Third Circuit remanded the case to the district court and ordered further discovery for the plaintiffs.
  • $51.25 million class recovery in In re Restasis Antitrust Litigation. Assisted in the litigation of claims against Allergan for engaging in an anticompetitive scheme to keep generic versions of the eye medication, Restasis, off the market. The alleged scheme included fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, sham litigation against generic manufacturers, meritless citizen petitions to the Food and Drug Administration and sham transfer of patents to a Native American Tribe in an attempt to avoid invalidation. In re Restasis Antitrust Litigation, 18-md-2819, E.D.N.Y., ECF No. 50.
  • $94 million class recovery in In re Celebrex Antitrust Litigation. Hannah was member of the HBSS team that litigated claims against Pfizer for fraudulently obtaining patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and then asserted those patents to delay generics competition in violation of federal antitrust law. The case settled mere weeks before trial. In re Celebrex (Celecoxib) Antitrust Litigation, 2:13-cv-361, E.D. Va., ECF Nos. 64, 455.
Experience
  • Prior to joining Hagens Berman, Ms. Brennan clerked for the Honorable Timothy B. Dyk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Honorable Theodore McKee, Chief Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
  • She was awarded a Yale Gruber Fellowship in Global Justice and Women’s Rights to work for Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program. At Public Citizen, she worked on a broad range of healthcare issues, including: negotiation of the intellectual property provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, compulsory licensing of HIV medications in Peru, and policies for improving access to Hepatitis C medications for veterans, Native Americans and prisoners.
  • In law school, Ms. Brennan worked in the Global Health and Justice Clinic, where she helped develop a human rights approach to intellectual property law. She also served in the Workers and Immigrants’ Rights Advocacy Clinic, where she obtained a substantial settlement for a group of Latino construction workers with unpaid wage claims. She further represented Connecticut DREAMers in their legislative and regulatory campaigns to secure financial aid for undocumented students at Connecticut state universities.
  • Prior to law school, Ms. Brennan served as Fulbright Scholar in Lima, Peru, where she researched labor rights abuses in the domestic housework industry and advocated for greater government regulation of this area.
Recognition
  • Ones to Watch, Plaintiffs Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions, Best Lawyers, 2024
  • 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Plaintiff Financial Lawyers, Lawdragon, 2023-2024
  • Charles G. Albom Prize for Excellency in Appellate Advocacy
Publications
Languages
  • Spanish
Personal Insight

Hannah’s favorite city is Lima, her favorite state is Vermont, and her favorite 90s action movie is The Fugitive.