Earlier this year, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr made waves in the London patent litigation market with the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Justin Watts and senior associate Matthew Shade, who joined the US firm as a partner.

The hires were the first WilmerHale had made in London since 2014, when it launched a London intellectual property (IP) litigation practice with the hire of Dentons' then UK patents head Anthony Trenton, and the first since it decided to downsize in the UK and move away from transactional work in 2015.

So why grow now – and where next?

WilmerHale IP litigation co-chair Mark Selwyn says the increasingly global nature of patent disputes meant the firm needed to have a more joined-up offering worldwide.

He explains: "The world is becoming a smaller place and patent litigation does not stop at borders. We need to advise on IP and litigation in a way that is internationally minded. We have one of the strongest practices in the US and we wanted to build it out internationally."

Selwyn says the London IP disputes team will expand further, and also identified Germany as a possible area for growth. The firm currently has offices in Frankfurt and Berlin, but does not have IP litigation capability.

Trenton adds: "Fundamentally, patent litigation is becoming increasingly global. Our underlying strategy is to be a single firm that can manage global patent litigation for clients across the US and Europe."

It is a strategy that has cost Freshfields its sole City patent litigation partner, with Watts (pictured above) working closely with tech giant Apple during his time with the magic circle firm.

With Apple also a key client of WilmerHale in the US, the firm will be hoping Watts will continue the relationship at his new firm.

In 2014, Watts led Freshfields' team advising Apple on its design infringement claim against Samsung, as it attempted to prevent its tech rival from selling its Galaxy tablet across Europe in light of alleged similarities to its iPad.

Meanwhile, WilmerHale US IP partner William Lee led the firm's team advising Apple in a major IP dispute with Samsung earlier this year. Shade and Watts have also advised UK pharma company Bristol-Myers Squibb, as has WilmerHale.

Commenting on his move, Watts agrees that joining a US firm was attractive because of the more global landscape.

He says: "If you go back 20 years, litigation tended to be more national, then increasingly European, and now international. Over our time at Freshfields we worked solidly on multijurisdictional litigation, and now having a team that straddles the Atlantic to deal with European matters is really terrific."

Shade adds: "Justin and I worked with Mark and his team on the Apple case a few years ago. The ability to do that type of case for Apple and other similar multinational clients with that support is a real pull factor in our move."