The international law firm of Jones Day today confirmed that nearly 100 lawyers from leading intellectual property firm Pennie & Edmonds will join Jones Day in New York, California, and Washington, DC, effective January 1, 2004.
Prior to gaining the Pennie & Edmonds lawyers, Jones Day had one of the largest intellectual property practices of any full-service law firm, counting nearly 175 lawyers within the practice. The Pennie lawyers will both complement and supplement Jones Day’s established IP practice, bringing particular strength in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, where Pennie has a longstanding track record of leadership in the field; chemicals, electrical, and mechanical; and trademarks, copyrights, and unfair competition.
Jones Day plans to continue Pennie & Edmonds’ tradition of an organized program to recruit as law clerks doctoral and post-doctoral fellows in various disciplines and to support their training and promotion as lawyers. Fourteen such law clerks will join Jones Day.
Jones Day Managing Partner Stephen J. Brogan noted, “We are delighted to be joined by the Pennie & Edmonds lawyers. The addition of this group of approximately 100 lawyers who possess extensive experience in intellectual property law will combine with a comparable complement of intellectual property lawyers already at Jones Day to provide our clients a level of service and protection of their assets around the world that few other firms can match.”
Robert C. Kahrl, Chair of Jones Day’s intellectual property practice, explained, “Bringing on the Pennie team in New York will move our New York intellectual property team beyond litigation; we now have a full-service IP practice, offering patent and trademark prosecution, as well as licensing and litigation. Our New York office will house the largest IP practice in the firm, in the largest IP market in the world.”
Pennie practice leader Brian Poissant added, “The strength of Jones Day’s existing IP practice in combination with their international footprint made this a particularly appropriate path for us to take, with both firms — and both firms’ clients — benefiting from our complementary practice profiles.”
Jones Day has steadily grown its intellectual property practice over the past decade, doubling its capacity from 80 to 175 lawyers in the last five years alone, most notably by taking on several lawyers from the Los Angeles firm of Lyon & Lyon in 2002, and opening an intellectual property dominated office in Munich, Germany in January 2003. It also has a growing intellectual property practice in Asia, making Jones Day one of the very few firms that has an IP capability that spans the globe.
