Duane Morris has opened a new office in Palo Alto, Calif., making for the firm's fifth outpost in California. The new location will focus, to start, on intellectual property litigation.…
Duane Morris already has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Truckee, Calif., which is near Lake Tahoe. The firm said the Palo Alto office will give Duane Morris attorneys more efficient and direct access to clients across the high-tech hub that is the Silicon Valley. Attorneys in the firm's existing four offices will help to service clients in the Palo Alto location.
The firm said Palo Alto is a natural fit for Duane Morris' work in patent litigation and prosecution, trademarks, copyrights, venture capital, private equity and related commercial litigation.
The intellectual property practice, particularly in California, has been a strategic growth target for Duane Morris recently.
L. Norwood "Woody" Jameson, chairman of the practice, said in a statement that the launch in Palo Alto was a direct response to client feedback. He said the IP practice leadership is making a "substantial commitment" to the West Coast with a priority on hiring in Palo Alto and other California offices.
Duane Morris Chairman John Soroko told The Legal Intelligencer the firm wanted to get closer to the types of clients that fall into the firm's IP "sweet spot," which he said was in the computer, high-tech and telecommunications space. …
Duane Morris changed the leadership of the IP practice in early 2012. Lewis F. Gould Jr. stepped down and Atlanta-based Jameson took his place.
Jameson's practice has a strong emphasis on patent litigation for electronic engineering companies, making the firm's goals in Palo Alto and San Francisco a natural evolution for the practice, Soroko said.
"Companies are being much more circumspect about where they are willing to invest dollars in litigation efforts, but things that continue to be important to our clients are issues that surround intellectual property," Soroko said.
The firm has been very mindful of that trend in the past few years and has looked to grow accordingly, he said. "IP is our third-largest practice group in the firm," Soroko said. "It has been a very important ingredient in our success over the last few years."
There are more than 100 Duane Morris lawyers practicing between the firm's five California offices. About 70 of those lawyers are in San Francisco. That office started in 1999 with an energy and natural resources focus and has now become full-service, including lawyers practicing across the spectrum of IP work, Soroko said.
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CREATING A FOOTHOLD IN THE VALLEY
Out-of-state firms have had varied success in launching in the Silicon Valley region.
Of the 100 largest law firms in Pennsylvania, Duane Morris has become the ninth to open in the Silicon Valley region. Reed Smith; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; K&L Gates; Dechert; Jones Day; Littler Mendelson; Greenberg Traurig; and DLA Piper have offices in the area.
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Soroko agreed Silicon Valley can be a tough market to crack. The firm had been looking for the right opportunity for some time, he said.
In the meantime, Duane Morris has been focusing its growth efforts, in part, outside of the United States. The firm has increasingly grown in Singapore. While Soroko said there are no immediate plans for new offices in that region, Duane Morris is "very keen" on looking at that part of Southeast Asia for new growth opportunities in the future.
Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.