30 June – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP today announced the opening of a new office in Palo Alto, California, establishing the firm’s presence on the West Coast.
Through the new Palo Alto office, the firm is extending its preeminent corporate, intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, and securities litigation and enforcement practices. While the firm is a recognized leader in these practice areas, the expansion will better enable it to serve those clients who are based on the West Coast or whose legal work arises in that region. A Palo Alto office will also enable the firm to offer its nationally recognized regulatory and public policy expertise to the firm’s West Coast clients and build on its corporate, regulatory, and government affairs practices in China.
“Our expansion into California represents another significant milestone as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the merger and our continued success as a combined firm,” said William F. Lee and William J. Perlstein, co-managing partners of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. “For our corporate, intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, and securities litigation and enforcement practices, establishing an office in Silicon Valley is the next logical geographic step.”
Silicon Valley is the largest technology, life sciences, and venture capital market in the world, making it a natural place for expansion. The firm’s corporate practice is known for its preeminence in the representation of technology and life sciences companies in the United States and Europe. Not only is California home to many leading technology and life sciences companies, but the Northern District of California (covering San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland) is one of three jurisdictions with the greatest number of patent cases. Over the past five years, the firm’s internationally recognized intellectual property and intellectual property litigation practices have been involved in more than 25 key patent and technology cases in the Northern District of California, lending support to the decision to expand to the West Coast.
Curtis L. Mo, formerly of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, will lead the new office. Mo is recognized as a leading lawyer in Silicon Valley in representing emerging growth companies, major public companies, investment banks, and venture capital funds, particularly in the technology, life sciences, and retail sectors. He has extensive experience in public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and venture capital deals.
Nader Mousavi, a corporate lawyer from the firm’s Boston office, will join the team in Palo Alto. Mousavi has handled hundreds of strategic alliances, licenses, and other technology transactions. Several lawyers from the firm’s Boston and Washington, DC offices, with backgrounds in intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, licensing, and regulatory matters, will also join the Palo Alto team in the coming months.
