When Justin Watts and Matthew Shade quit Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for WilmerHale last May, the exits left a patent litigator-shaped hole in the magic circle firm's London intellectual property (IP) capabilities.

For WilmerHale, the high-profile moves represented the first lateral hires since it launched a London IP litigation practice in 2014.

Watts counted the likes of Rolls-Royce, Johnson & Johnson and Apple among his clients at Freshfields, having in 2014 led a team advising the tech giant on a design infringement claim against Samsung.

Shade, like Watts a PhD, was a senior associate at Freshfields, and also a patent examiner at the European Patent Office. Much of his big-ticket work has involved pan-European litigation, including defending an international medical device company in a patent infringement claim, and acting for a global pharma company in a dispute relating to a new cancer treatment. He joined WilmerHale as a partner.

At a time when IP is moving up the agenda, with growing numbers of firms making lateral hires into the practice, including Kirkland & Ellis, which this May swooped for Allen & Overy's global IP head Nicola Dagg, it was a hole Freshfields could not afford to ignore for long.

"The world is getting increasingly global, and the importance of patents is growing. Industry is taking on a new complexion and patents are the key to these developments," admits Freshfields' global dispute resolution head David Scott.

Last month – one year after Watts and Shade departed – Freshfields filled the gap, announcing the hire of a four-strong team from Arnold & Porter in London led by partner Christopher Stothers, and including counsel Laura Whiting and associates Ammina Rao and Paul Abbott.

Discussing the time lag between the exits and the new hires, Scott says: "There were no doubts about the need or the strategy. There was no heated debate; just a very short discussion at the end of which a quick consensus was formed. And we don't make a habit of lateral hires – just a few in the last two years. While it would have been nice to fill the posts earlier, these things take time."

Before his eight-year stint at the US firm, Stothers spent six years at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, having trained at Linklaters. His work includes acting for pharma giant AstraZeneca in a cross-border dispute, as well representing German tech firm Heraeus and fashion chain Karen Millen in patent matters.

The new additions have already hit the headlines, albeit through Stothers' pro bono work (the bulk of which was carried out at Arnold & Porter) helping a transgender woman win a legal challenge in the Court of Justice of the European Court, after the UK Government refused to recognise her gender reassignment or to pay her the state pension she claimed she was owed.

After being courted by several US outfits, Stothers settled on Freshfields, stating that the firm's "pan-European" vision made the move a no-brainer.

"The patent litigation market in London is small. You need to look across Europe. And where many US firms are all about 'why don't we do in London what we are doing in the US?', Freshfields is asking us to broaden out its patent practices in Germany and Amsterdam. It's more that the firm wants London to be part of that pan-European scope than for the City to be the be-all and end-all," says Stothers.

Whiting, who spent just three months at Arnold & Porter before leaving for Freshfields after joining from Hogan Lovells, agrees with Stothers that the pan-European focus was what drew her to the magic circle firm.

Freshfields has looked to build on the strength of its wider disputes practice across continental Europe and says it will continue to nurture and develop its Europe-wide business.

While their focus is very much spread across all aspects of the patent disputes market, Scott predicts that the team will bring an advantage that spans beyond this.

"We have an interest in the wider picture and in how Chris, Laura, Ammina and Paul can enhance other areas of our disputes practice. They can be door-openers, expanding our capability traction in different areas for different clients."

Stothers adds: "The broader disputes are really exciting. While it's exciting to do the tech stuff, we can assist on more commercial disputes."

Whiting agrees with the appeal of contributing to a variety of commercial transactions, of which IP is one strand among many. She cites Freshfields' antitrust practice as being particularly strong and looks forward to "assisting on smartphone, licence and competition disputes where patent or tech issues arise".

Regarding how his workload was divvied up on his departure from Arnold & Porter, and whether he had brought across any of his existing clients to Freshfields, Stothers said: "[Both] firms and their clients had a very grown-up discussion about how the cases would be best handled in the future and all was resolved by consensus. Everyone's focus is on ensuring the best client experience and it was handled both professionally and amicably."

On the importance of the patent litigation practice, Scott concludes: "Very few big firms have the necessary capability for this type of work. Those with it will look to expand that capability. Those without it will look to build it or buddy up with smaller boutique practices."

When asked whether the firm was looking to expand its capability in the area even further, Scott said there were no plans for further lateral hiring and that any expansion would be by the usual process of internal promotions. But added that one should "never say never".