August 29, 2013

REUTERS LEGAL

By Casey Sullivan

SILICON VALLEY – The Chicago firm Winston & Strawn is to open an office in California’s IP heartland, Silicon Valley, on the heels of at least seven other law firms in the last two years.

The Winston office, slated to start business Sept. 9, will initially focus on intellectual property, said partner David Enzminger, who will lead the office. Winston clients include Google and Cisco Systems Inc, according to the firm’s website.

Law firms have set up south of San Francisco aiming to capture legal work from high-tech companies based there, such as Apple Inc, Oracle Inc, Facebook Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Enzminger declined to comment on Winston clients, citing a firm policy that prohibited him from doing so.

In the last two years, law firms that have opened offices in Silicon Valley include McKool Smith; Novak Druce Connolly Bove and Quigg; Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman; Duane Morris; Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch; Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel; and Dickstein Shapiro.
Enzminger acknowledged that Winston is late in the game, saying that about 31 of the country’s top 50 law firms have already set up outposts there.

Some of them, such as Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Fenwick & West and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, have been in Silicon Valley for decades, according to their websites. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Morrison & Foerster have handled recent smartphone litigation between Apple and Samsung.

Not every law firm’s fortunes have been good because the competition for IP work is fierce, according to California recruiter Larry Watanabe. The Washington firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld closed its Silicon Valley office in 2008 after opening there in 2005. Reed Smith lost a group of five intellectual property partners in January 2012 to DLA Piper.

An Akin Gump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did a Reed Smith spokeswoman.

Winston’s move comes three weeks after the firm announced that it had added 10 attorneys focusing on complex technology patent cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission from the law firm Finnegan Henderson.

Winston will staff six partners and one senior counsel, Enzminger said. It is the firm’s third office in California and its 17th worldwide, according to Winston’s website.