Perkins Coie Opens San Diego Office

SAN DIEGO, CA (June 2, 2010) – Perkins Coie announced today that it has opened an office in San Diego, California. Four new partners are joining the firm and will serve as the core of the new office. Partner Thane Bauz has joined the firm from Paul Hastings and partners John Schnurer, Brian Wacter and Bing Ai have joined from Fish & Richardson. Bauz and Schnurer will work in the patent litigation group and Ai and Wacter will join the patent prosecution group. 

The new San Diego office allows Perkins to better serve the interests of national and international clients with operations in Southern California. This is the firm's fourth office in California and the firm will now have more than 100 attorneys in the state.

"It is a continued testament to our growing strength as a national firm that these talented attorneys have chosen to join us," said Perkins Managing Partner Bob Giles. "We are committed to continuing to expand our intellectual property capabilities and this group will help us pursue that strategic goal."

"We have a successful history of working together and are excited to reunite at Perkins Coie," San Diego Office Managing Partner Bauz noted. "It is an exceptional law firm with a highly respected national intellectual property practice with significant experience before federal courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office."

In addition to opening the new San Diego office Perkins recently launched an office in Dallas and added lateral attorneys in Denver, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. The moves reflect Perkins' ongoing efforts to expand its national presence through strategic acquisitions and lateral hires. Since 2005 the firm has added more than 200 lateral attorneys in a variety of practice groups.

The new San Diego partners join an intellectual property practice that includes more than 200 lawyers throughout the United States and China. Ranked by Law360 as one of the largest IP practices in the country, Perkins' lawyers are focused on IP litigation, patent and trademark prosecution, technology licensing, copyrights and trade secret and unfair competition counseling. Perkins' clients include companies in all technologies and industries around the world.

"Adding this group to our firm brings even greater depth to the intellectual property services we can provide our clients," said Chun Ng, chair of the firm's IP practice group.

Perkins offers a broad range of services, including litigation, corporate finance, intellectual property, real estate and labor and employment law. The firm operates from 15 offices in the United States and offers international capability through its offices in Beijing and Shanghai.

The firm has been recognized for its accomplishments in the legal profession, its commitment to diversity and its excellent client service. In January, the firm was recognized by FORTUNE magazine for the eighth consecutive year as being one of the "100 Best Places to Work." The firm was recently named as one of the "2010 Top Ten Family Friendly Firms" by Yale Law Women. For the second consecutive year, the firm was named one of the "Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother magazine and national consulting firm Flex-Time Lawyers LLC and also earned the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's top rating of 100 percent in the 2009 and 2010 Corporate Equality Index. In addition, the firm received the Corporate Partnership Award for Supporting People with Disabilities.