Dechert LLP announced today the opening of its Palo Alto office with the addition of 28 lawyers formerly with Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP in Palo Alto. The new Silicon Valley team establishes Dechert’s third office in California and its 15th office worldwide.
The Palo Alto office opening significantly enhances Dechert’s intellectual property litigation, commercial litigation, and patent prosecution practice and continues the firm’s California expansion following new office openings in San Francisco in January 2003 and Newport Beach in 2001.
“We have been working to build our intellectual property litigation and counseling practice on a wider national platform. We are fortunate to be able to take advantage of opportunities in Silicon Valley that are emerging from the turmoil that is occurring in the market,” said Dechert’s Chairman, Barton J. Winokur. “This is a rare opportunity to acquire so many successful IP practitioners in one move. This will enhance Dechert’s presence on the West Coast and provide a strong base for further expansion in Northern California,” added Winokur.
Michael Kalkstein, the managing partner of the new office and a veteran Silicon Valley intellectual property litigator, will lead the Palo Alto team of eight partners, two counsel, and 18 associates whose practice focuses on litigation and intellectual property matters for blue chip companies in the semiconductor, capital equipment, software and hardware, telecommunications, and Internet and e-commerce industries, among other high technology areas.
Kalkstein and former Oppenheimer partner Chris Scott Graham said that they had discussions with a number of firms before deciding that Dechert would be the best strategic fit. “Dechert rose to the top as the firm with which we found the greatest synergies,” said Kalkstein.
According to Graham, also a veteran Silicon Valley litigator, “Our strength in intellectual property and complex business litigation, as well as IP prosecution and transactions, was precisely what Dechert was seeking. Those concentrations meld powerfully with Dechert’s strengths,” which include widely recognized complex commercial litigation, antitrust, mass torts and product liability, M&A, private equity, real estate finance, and investment management practices.
