Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which recently just picked up a veteran intellectual property litigator from Durie Tangri, has added three more partners to its Silicon Valley office.

Edwin Thom "Todd" Rumberger Jr., John Rockwell and Frederic Adam all joined the firm from Foley & Lardner, where they have worked closely together on transactional matters, Wilmer announced Thursday.

"So for us, the big driver was just the expansion that's happened in my practice, and probably the same for John and Fred, over the last four or five years," said Rumberger, noting that he was drawn to Wilmer because of the sources and associate support it is able to offer in California. He said the firm's corporate associates are at "the right level, the right variety" for his client needs.

Rumberger said the trio has worked together since the early 2000s, when he and Adam were part of the original group that helped Greenberg Traurig launch its Silicon Valley office in 2004. Rockwell later joined that firm as a summer associate.

The three separated for a brief period as Adam left to join KPMG in 2011 and Rumberger left to join Foley & Lardner in 2012. But before long, they had reunited at Foley & Lardner.

"There is definitely a history among the three of us," Rumberger said. "We get along really well, I think we complement each other quite well, from sort of both a personality and a service perspective."

Rumberger and Rockwell primarily represent emerging companies and investors on corporate matters, while Adam's practice focuses on advising multinational companies, investment funds, and fund portfolio companies on international and domestic taxation.

"My practice is now 100% startup venture and M&A," Rumberger said. "So to find a firm [where] their corporate DNA is [aligned with] that—it's not something else that they do, but it is what they do—that was really important to find."

The three partners' addition bolsters Wilmer's Silicon Valley office, which opened in 2005, bringing its attorney head count to 51.

"Their addition is part of further expanding our transactional presence on the West Coast, and our footprint in Northern California," Susan Murley, the firm's co-managing partner, said in a statement. "Combined with our resources, their experience greatly enhances what we can do for our Bay Area clients on transactional matters, including general corporate, corporate finance, M&A and tax."

The Washington, D.C.-based firm also opened a new San Francisco office early in the year, which has since grown to 10 lawyers. Including 27 more in Los Angeles, the firm has a total of 85 lawyers in California. Though early in the year, Wilmer did experience a loss in California as Randall Lee, a longtime partner who spent the past decade building out the firm's Los Angeles office, left to join Cooley.

Foley & Lardner did not respond to request for comment regarding the partners' departure.

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