San Francisco-based firm Sideman & Bancroft has created a European affiliate and opened an office in Paris, in its first international move.

The new entity, Sideman & Bancroft Europe, will focus on the firm's core practices of brand protection and intellectual property for corporate clients, as well as data protection.

Sideman & Bancroft partner Béatrice Martinet is relocating from San Francisco to co-found the European arm. She previously practiced intellectual property law in Paris for ten years at two international firms, including legacy Salans (now Dentons) and Bird & Bird.

 "Our EU business has been expanding at 30% per year for the past five years, and we already have a large client base in France and have represented our U.S. clients across Europe," Martinet said.

She is actively recruiting an IP team for Paris and will also be looking to hire a partner with expertise in data protection, Martinet added.

 The firm said it chose Paris as the site of its first European affiliate in part to leverage Martinet's experience and contacts, in part because of France's growing importance in EU politics and policy now that Britain is set to leave the EU.

 "France is the seventh biggest economy in the world, with strong industries in a wide range of businesses where we are already present," Martinet said. With Brexit, she added, "France is assuming an even more pivotal role in the European Union. It presents an opportunity."

Sideman & Bancroft's client list includes top players in technology, including Cisco Systems, Oracle, Varian and Mozilla; luxury goods, consumer goods, banking and insurance; and medicine and pharmaceuticals. It currently consists of 43 lawyers. 

 In addition to traditional brand-protection and IP matters, Sideman & Bancroft Europe is also looking to advise on investigations and enforcement, global investigation management, online anti-counterfeit monitoring, and global customs and program development.

 "The use of technology to address these issues is critical," added Jeff Hallam, managing partner of Sideman & Bancroft. "Companies are sitting on so much data – from sales, manufacturing, investigations – that can be leveraged."

 A new and expanding focus for the firm will be in data protection, as clients doing business in the EU and the European Economic Area seek to comply with the stringent requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which came into force in May 2018.