A dozen attorneys from the San Diego office of Fish & Richardson have departed to start a local branch of the Boston-based law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
The 450-lawyer firm, with offices throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, will open a permanent office in the new Paseo del Mar complex in San Diego, expected to be completed in 2007. The local office is temporarily located at 9255 Towne Centre Drive.
The new location will expand the firm’s corporate and securities, intellectual property, litigation and employment law practices, according to Mintz Levin.
Among those joining the firm from Fish & Richardson are Eddie Wang Rodriguez, the head of the corporate and securities group; Craig Hunsaker, managing partner of Fish’s San Diego office; Lance Kurata, James Cleary and Carl Kukkonen, and Marketing Director David Salisbury.
The move comes on the heels of Mintz Levin’s acquisition of the Reed Intellectual Property Law Group and the opening of a Palo Alto office, which marked the firm’s first significant expansion to the West Coast.
“Mintz Levin is committed to establishing a major presence on the West Coast,” said Steven P. Rosenthal, the firm’s co-managing member. “Opening our second California office in as many months underscores this commitment and will enable us to build on our strengths.”
Mintz Levin credits San Diego for its “vibrant life sciences, corporate, intellectual property and technology community.”
“The talented attorneys joining to anchor our new office have a depth and breadth of experience in these exciting, fast-growing industries, are well-established in the San Diego area, and are an outstanding fit with our existing intellectual property, corporate, employment and litigation practices,” said Andrew R. Urban, co-managing member of Mintz Levin.
The firm completed more than $7 billion in corporate transactions on behalf of clients in 2005, according to Mintz Levin, and handled more than 60 merger and acquisition deals, totaling more than $2.7 billion; more than 20 public securities offerings, totaling nearly $4.4 billion; and 60 venture capital deals, totaling more than $485 million.
Meanwhile, Fish & Richardson reported that, as of June 2, it had received only six resignations from its attorneys, and one from its marketing director.
But, numbers aside, Juanita Brooks, managing principal of the firm, said, “We are always sorry to see colleagues go, but, as far as the impact as a whole, it’s pretty negligible.
“We have nine new people coming in September, and some lateral transitions in the pipeline,” said Brooks. “It seems that, for every one we lose, we have two new ones in the pipeline.”
Fish & Richardson was rated number one by IP Law360, a daily newswire for intellectual property professionals this year , a double-edged sword, said Brooks.
“I think that’s why we have all of this interest from national law firms,” she said. “We are our own worst enemy.”
, Pat Broderick
