For a firm renowned for its singular focus, the London arm of Howrey once looked pretty confusing. Launched five years ago, the UK practice has failed to register much on the City radar, despite the rise and rise in Europe of competition, one of the firm's core US strengths. Having until last year neglected to launch a City competition team, the firm's London office had instead become more focused on fairly generalist contentious work, including some asset-tracing, white-collar crime and financial services litigation. Likewise, its small intellectual property (IP) team was, until recently, well short of critical mass.

Matters seemed further complicated by last week's announcement that a three-partner litigation team was decamping to top IP litigation boutique Bristows as part of a shake-up of its London office's practice, suggesting (wrongly) that patent
litigation was going down the agenda.

Refreshingly, however, Howrey itself has conceded that its City practice was out of step with its two 'brand' practice areas. That
recognition led to a review of the practice last autumn that concluded that the office would regroup around the IP/antitrust axis the firm is known for while maintaining a small, high-end arbitration practice at its London and Paris offices, led in the UK by the energetic Melanie Willems. It also led to the transfer of the well-regarded team to Bristows which, despite their destination, are more focused on general litigation than IP, and also the move of partners Peter Fitzpatrick and George Maling to Nabarro last year.

Howrey European antitrust head Trevor Soames comments on the firm's previous UK strategy: "We were a bit unclear in London, a bit unfocused. Now we have clarity." Of course, news of strategy reviews and team departures, especially at US law firms in
challenging commercial markets, tends to result in a negative, knee-jerk reaction. But Soames not only articulates a good case for the firm's City relaunch, Howrey can point to some decent work and promising appointments to give substance to its claims.

Hodgson's choice

The firm has already gone a good way towards giving its City IP practice credibility, having only just taken the decision to rebuild around the practice. Hires in recent months have included Linklaters' former IP head Jeremy Brown, as well as Taylor Wessing's Marjan Noor and Paul Inman from Simmons & Simmons. And great things are expected from last April's hire of Mark Hodgson, Taylor Wessing's well-regarded head of life sciences and healthcare.

With six IP partners in London the firm argues it is well positioned to build out, in the words of one bullish partner, a "hardcore contentious IP practice and trademark enforcement business".

Building up in competition is still a work in progress with Lovells' former Brussels head, Tom McQuail, arriving last year as Howrey's first full-time partner in London (though Soames and fellow Brussels partner Geert Goeteyn are currently splitting their time between the UK and the Belgian capital).

But the firm pledges additional investment in competition and points to a backdrop of wider European expansion, including this year's launch in Madrid and quality IP hires in Paris and Munich. One downside of this investment is that it appears to have hit Howrey's bottom line, with average equity partner profits falling 17% to $1.01m (£516,000) in 2007. Nevertheless, at a time when large London firms often avoid investing in IP, the leaner and less confusing Howrey looks a decent prospect.