Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer is expanding in the Midwest with three hires from an IP boutique.

Christopher Renk and Michael Harris have joined the firm as partners, while Helen Minsker has joined the firm as senior counsel in the intellectual property practice group, the firm planned to announce Monday.

The IP litigation trio, known for successfully representing Converse in International Trade Commission litigation against Walmart and Sketchers, joined from Chicago IP boutique Banner Witcoff.

The trio's addition brings Arnold & Porter's head count in Chicago to 28 lawyers. Chicago is a robust market for IP services because there are many tech startups and universities in the area, Renk said in an interview. But the three lawyers also have a number of national clients.

"Our clients are not just based in Chicago, but being here gives us the unique opportunity to not only service the Chicagoland area, but also the upper Midwest as well as nationally," he said, adding that Chicago is also a great location to be based in because post-pandemic, it's a central location that makes travel easy.

Renk declined to name his clients but said they would all be moving with the trio to Arnold & Porter.

Richard Alexander, the firm's chairman, said in a statement that the trio have a "demonstrated track record of success in handling sophisticated IP matters." He added that their industry expertise "will be extraordinarily valuable to our clients in solving their most complex intellectual property challenges."

Renk said that the three had been looking to move to a larger firm for about four years, right as the Converse trademark litigation started to ramp up. He explained that being at an IP boutique, his firm didn't have the depth and breadth of experience to take on the case themselves, and they had to retain co-counsel.

"I didn't want to miss out on opportunities down the line," he said, adding that the group seriously started looking for a new home at the end of 2019 and continued talking with firms throughout the pandemic before landing on Arnold & Porter.

"Our business is still good, and we have a lot of opportunities and a good collection of clients, and coming from an IP boutique, we wanted to introduce our existing clients to services beyond just IP," he said. "Arnold & Porter is really strong in a lot of legal practice areas, and there's a strong sense of collegiality and collaboration that came through even in a lot of Zoom conferences [during the hiring process]."

Renk's practice centers on litigating patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, false advertising and unfair competition cases, and he has worked on matters such as computer software, consumer electronics, product designs and electrical controls.

Harris is currently virtual IP counsel for an industrial organization that includes more than 185 independent manufacturing and service businesses. His work has included high-stakes litigation involving utility patent, design patent, trademark, trade dress, copyright, trade secret and unfair competition.

Minsker's practice focuses on counseling, prosecution and registration of applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office.

Looking forward, Renk said he expects to see an uptick in patent litigation because companies are trying to monetize patent portfolios after being negatively affected by the pandemic. Additionally, he said he also expects to see an uptick in trade secrets litigation, as laid-off employees with access to confidential information and trade secrets knowingly or unwittingly use that information to obtain new jobs.

In a statement, Banner Witcoff president Chunhsi Andy Mu said the boutique wishes the trio well. "Banner Witcoff is fortunate to have a 100-year history and a team of talented attorneys, many of whom began their careers with us. But, departures happen in law firms. Michael, Helen and Chris have long been recognized in the field of IP law, and we appreciate their many contributions to Banner Witcoff," he said.