Boston-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo wants to make a big push into California, and it is getting started with the acquisition of the Palo Alto-based Reed Intellectual Property Law Group.
Dianne Reed and her three partners say they will merge their patent prosecution shop into Mintz as of May 1. Mintz is also working to hire groups in San Diego and Los Angeles, where the 450-lawyer firm already has a two-person office.
"This is just the start," said Steven Rosenthal, co-managing member at Mintz Levin. "We have made a decision to establish this office in Palo Alto and begin to build out a more significant presence in California more broadly."
The acquisition comes as several Boston firms target the California market. Goodwin Procter says it plans to open in San Francisco as early as this summer, and may also set up shop in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr established an office last July in Palo Alto.
And Ropes & Gray, which first opened in San Francisco in 2001, acquired Palo Alto-based Fish & Neave in January 2005.
"Increasingly, out-of-city firms are encroaching on the practices of the Boston firms, and Boston firms are looking to expand their practice bases," says Tower Snow, the former chairman of now-defunct Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison who is launching his own consulting outfit.
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