David Gindler. (Courtesy photo)

The managing partner of Irell & Manella, the former co-chair of its intellectual property practice and two other seasoned IP litigators from the firm have moved to Milbank in Los Angeles.

David Gindler, Gary Frischling, Lauren Drake and Yite John Lu have joined Milbank’s litigation and arbitration group, their new firm said Friday. Scott Edelman, chairman of New York-based Milbank, said the move was years in the making. He praised the group as very accomplished and equipped to serve old and new clients at Milbank in bet-the-company lawsuits.

“We’ve had our eye on David and Gary for a couple of years now,” Edelman said in an interview with ALM. “What we were looking for was to attract top-echelon, bet-the-company IP litigators, and there are only a very small handful of people in the country who fit into that category.”

The four lawyers have gone to bat with billions of dollars on the line. Gindler helped the City of Hope National Medical Center win a $302 million verdict, which Milbank described as the biggest compensatory damages award upheld in a published California appellate decision and helped another client beat a $217 million damages claim where liability had already been established.

In an interview, Gindler said Milbank’s national and global presence was a driving factor in his and his colleagues’ decision to move. He said he told colleagues at Irell that he was considering a new opportunity before he accepted Milbank’s offer. Despite his former firm’s more limited practice and geography—it focuses on IP and only has offices in Southern California—he said he is confident Irell will continue to thrive.

“This really isn’t about what’s lacking at Irell,” he said. “It’s really about what I was looking at about my future.”

Frischling has also worked on numerous high-stakes disputes for tech and life sciences clients; his page on Irell’s website listed representations for Gilead Sciences, Texas Instruments and the University of Pennsylvania. He works on patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and trade secret litigation, as well as transactional matters like IP licensing, development and acquisition deals and predeal reviews of IP portfolios.

Drake and Lu both made partner at Irell earlier this year, according to Irell’s website. Drake’s practice focuses on IP and patent litigation, with an emphasis on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Lu’s cases have involved patent infringement, biosimilars, abbreviated new drug application litigation and licensing disputes.

Gindler said Drake and Lu worked very closely with him and Frischling. Both made partner after just seven years, the shortest possible path to partner at Irell, he added.

Gindler’s title at Milbank will be head of its intellectual property litigation and licensing group. Edelman said the title reflects how related IP transactions and litigation can be.

“They do a lot of work that’s pre-litigation that involves portfolios of patents and doing deals,” he said. “Many of those deals have a backdrop of, ‘if we can’t do a deal, there will be litigation.’”

The move is a big loss of talent for Irell, a highly profitable firm that has nonetheless seen its head count and revenue fall in recent years.

Gindler, who was at Irell for 34 years, was the firm’s third managing partner within a couple of years. He took the reins as Irell’s managing partner eight months ago after Ellisen Turner left the post. He and Frischling were both on Irell’s executive committee. The firm’s previous managing partner, Andrei Iancu, is now the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He was managing partner for two three-year terms.

Gindler and his colleagues’ last day at Irell was Thursday. They started at Milbank on Friday.

An Irell spokeswoman said the firm is now being run by a three-person management committee. The Irell management committee members are Ben Hattenbach, Lisa Glasser and Keith Orso.

An Irell representative said, “We have enjoyed working with David, Gary, Lauren and John, all of whom are talented lawyers. While we are sorry to see them leave, we wish them the very best.”