Eversheds Sutherland said Wednesday it's launching a San Diego office with three intellectual property litigators from Foley & Lardner.

The trio of partners, Jose Patino, Nicola Pisano and Christopher Bolten, are expected to join Eversheds within the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Eversheds is talking with lawyers in other practices in San Diego and considering additional locations in California, said the firm's co-CEO, Mark Wasserman, in an interview.

This is the second U.S. office Eversheds has opened this year, following a Chicago outpost in May. The firm has been expanding aggressively since its creation in 2017 from a trans-Atlantic tie-up between the U.K.'s Eversheds and Atlanta-based Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. Eversheds launched the Chicago office—its first new U.S. location since the 2017 combination—with two real estate partners from White & Case and Kirkland & Ellis. 

U.S. expansion is now a top priority, said Wasserman, after an initial focus on integrating the legacy Eversheds and Sutherland firms. 

Adding the IP group in San Diego “is part of our strategy for U.S. growth,” Wasserman said, adding that he expects additional lawyers and staff from Foley & Lardner to join the trio at Eversheds. 

Eversheds is also talking to lawyers with corporate, litigation or tax practices in San Diego, he said. “We think there are other opportunities.” 

Eversheds has about 2,800 lawyers globally in 69 offices, and its U.S. lawyers make up about 20% of its total head count. It has added about 220 lawyers worldwide in the 2.5 years since the legacy firms combined, Wasserman said, and opened offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

The San Diego location will give Eversheds eight U.S. offices. Besides Atlanta and Chicago, it has lawyers in Washington, New York, Houston, Austin and Sacramento. 

Eversheds is initially leasing about 13,000 square feet at Paseo del Mar, located at 12255 El Camino Real in San Diego. “It's a relatively short lease, as we see who else we're adding,” Wasserman said.

The Foley & Lardner partners' IP practice is focused on life sciences, medical device and telecom technologies—all hot industries in San Diego.

“This group has a robust practice with clients based in the U.S., Asia and Europe,” said Pete Pappas, the U.S. co-head of Eversheds' global IP group.

The group's location in San Diego is “particularly appealing,” he added, because the city is a global hub for life sciences and biotechnology. It's the No. 1 originator of life sciences patent applications in the country. 

Patino has represented companies including Bridge Medical, Huawei Technologies and ReShape Medical (now part of EnteroMedics) in patent disputes. In addition to litigation, Pisano and Bolten handle patent prosecution, advise startups on their worldwide patent portfolios and perform IP due diligence for venture capital firms' investment targets.

The trio also handles some trademark, copyright and trade secret work, Pappas said.

Increasing the “depth and breadth” of Eversheds' U.S. IP practice is a recruiting priority, he said, adding that the firm has an extensive global practice in that area, because clients worldwide are concerned with IP protection and defense. 

Since the combination, Eversheds has added a six-lawyer, China-focused IP team in Hong Kong and Singapore, Pappas said, and is “actively recruiting” more patent attorneys in Europe, particularly in Germany and the U.K. 

US Growth Plans

In the United States, Eversheds is “very interested” in growing in California, Wasserman said, adding that the firm is also talking to lawyers in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

“We would be happy to add this group wherever they were located,” he said of the Foley & Lardner partners. “And it's a perfect opportunity to get more of a foothold in California.” 

Eversheds also will continue adding lawyers to its existing offices in Texas, New York and Chicago, Wasserman said. “We're talking to a lot of people in New York, and I expect we will be adding other people in Chicago as well over the next few months.”

That kind of growth push is expensive, Wasserman acknowledged. “We planned for it at the beginning of the year when we set the budget,” he said. “It takes a good amount of startup capital to open offices in big cities. We're at the right time to invest those dollars.” 

Eversheds reported a 10% increase in global revenue for 2018 to $1.175 billion. 

“Our partners understand that we are making some investments,” Wasserman said. “It comes out of money they would otherwise be paid themselves, but they understand it is for the long term.”