Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, which by the end of October will become Womble Bond Dickinson following a cross-border union with former alliance partner Bond Dickinson, has brought on a trio of intellectual property partners from McCarter & English for its new Boston office.

Danielle Herritt, Deborah Vernon and Cristin Cowles have joined Womble Carlyle's IP practice. The trio specialize in assisting clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries to prosecute, license and maintain their patent portfolios.

Womble Carlyle, which is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, set up shop in Boston on Sept. 1. The office, the firm's first in the Northeast and New England, was started to try and capitalize on the city's strong legal market and serve clients in the booming biotechnology and life sciences industries.