Taylor Wessing is to launch a second London office in east London's 'Tech City' as the firm looks to add to its client base with more UK and international technology start-ups.

The new office, which will be based near Old Street in Islington, will be staffed with lawyers from the firm's technology, media and telecoms, venture capital, intellectual property, tax, inward investment and employment practices.

The firm is planning to rotate the lawyers based in the office to offer a wide selection of its staff the chance to get experience of the tech sector, while it will also put on informal 'drop-in clinics' for tech companies to come in for ad hoc advice.

Taylor Wessing acts for a number of well-known tech businesses, including Google, which it recently advised on its purchases of deals website DailyDeal, mobile visual search startup Plink and speech synthesis company Phonetic Arts.

The announcement comes after Google and a number of other high-profile tech companies such as Firefox have recently moved into the area, with the former recently signing a ten-year lease on an office block near Old Street's so-called 'Silicon Roundabout'.

Taylor Wessing's Tech City chief Simon Walker commented: "Entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as an important driver of economic growth and innovation. As such, we see companies in Tech City as an area in need of dedicated investment."

He added: "Our office in Tech City brings us closer to the businesses of tomorrow and allows us to help them grow by sharing our experience and understanding of the issues they face. We want to ensure we are supporting these firms from the centre, not the sidelines."

Taylor Wessing also recently expanded into Singapore ia a tie-up with newly-formed local firm RHT Law.

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