TAIPEI – january 29 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced last week that it has opened an office in Taipei, Taiwan. The office, Orrick Foreign Legal Affairs Attorneys At Law, will assist and support Orrick’s rapidly growing base of clients headquartered in Taiwan and expand the firm’s presence in Asia. Orrick’s intellectual property practice has provided U.S. litigation-related services to more than a dozen Taiwan-based clients, primarily leading technology companies, for the past four years.
Taiwan is an increasingly important player in the high technology industry. In Business Week’s 2003 ranking of the 100 best-performing high technology companies in the world, more than 10 Taiwan-based companies made the list. Orrick lawyers represent Taiwanese clients on a wide variety of intellectual property matters at the trial court level.
The opening of a Taipei office establishes Orrick’s second location in Asia, and is the fourth office outside the United States that the firm has opened in three years. Six of the firm’s 14 offices are outside the United States. In Asia, Orrick also has an office in Tokyo, where it has successful project finance and real estate practices. In more recent years, the firm has established itself as a leader in the Japanese and “ex-Japan Asian” securitization markets, and has built a broad-ranging, Japanese-law-focused corporate practice. Orrick’s Tokyo office nearly doubled in size in 2004.
“Orrick’s decision to open a Taipei office was driven by our commitment to provide the highest-quality service to our clients,” said Ralph Baxter, Orrick’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our presence in Taiwan underscores Orrick’s position as a market leader, giving us the broader platform necessary to serve our clients’ current and future needs and explore other opportunities for growth in Asia.”
“Orrick has years of experience representing Taiwanese technology clients, and now can better serve those clients by being on the ground in Taipei,” said Eric Wesenberg, head of Orrick’s Asia IP practice. “Our Taipei office is a testament to the great value we place on our client relationships and our enthusiasm for deepening those relationships and developing new ones.”
Orrick client John J.N. Chyi, Vice President, Legal Affairs Department, Compal Electronics, Inc., said, “We view our outside counsel at Orrick as a sophisticated team of lawyers and business partners that has delivered great results. We are pleased they have further strengthened their presence in Taiwan by opening an office in Taipei.”
Recent Milestones for Taiwan-based Clients
Orrick’s IP practice recently achieved a major litigation victory at the trial court level on behalf of Taiwan-based Compal Electronics, one of the largest OEM (original equipment manufacturer) computer manufactures in the world. On November 30, Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California issued an order granting summary judgment to the defendants in a patent infringement case in which Orrick represented Compal Electronics and its subsidiaries. The plaintiff, LG Electronics (LGE), had asserted six patents (two previously dismissed) against Compal and four other Taiwanese manufacturers of notebook computers, arguing that computers Compal and the other defendants manufactured for companies such as Dell, HP and Toshiba infringed LGE’s patents. LGE is the consumer electronics division of South Korea conglomerate LG.
Orrick was a pioneer among international law firms in the area of Taiwanese securitization. As transactional counsel for Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Orrick structured and closed the first RMBS (residential mortgage securitization) to receive approval from the Taiwanese regulatory authorities and to be registered for public offering under Taiwan’s securities laws.
About Orrick
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers in North America, Europe, and Asia. The firm focuses on litigation, complex and novel finance, and innovative corporate transactions. Orrick clients include Fortune 100 companies, major industrial and financial corporations, commercial and investment banks, high-growth companies, governmental entities, start-ups, and individuals. The firm’s 14 offices are located in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, Pacific Northwest, London, Milan, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Taipei.
