Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe started off the new year opening a new office in Boston. Now the firm is bringing on a group of five intellectual property litigation partners from Fish & Richardson as it looks to grow its technology and innovation practices.

Fish & Richardson partners David Hosp, Mark Puzella, Sheryl Koval Garko and Caroline Simons joined Orrick in Boston this week, while Elizabeth Brenckman joined the firm in its New York office.

While Orrick's Boston office opened less than two months ago, the group had been on Orrick's radar for some time, and vice versa, often running into one another at client pitches.

“Orrick is a fantastic firm and has a great presence in the space that we've carved out a presence in as well,” said Hosp, who along with Puzella and Garko, joined Fish & Richardson from Goodwin Procter in 2013. 

The group specializes in trademark and copyright litigation and have worked on some of the most complex trademark cases in recent years. They represented Boston-based footwear brand New Balance Athletics Inc. in its trademark dispute against Nike-owned Converse over the iconic PF Flyers brand.

On the copyright side, the group has handled high-profile cases for leading technology companies, including representing Cablevision Systems Operation, once the fifth largest cable provider, concerning the legality of the first RS-DVR, or remote storage digital video recorder.

In making the move to Orrick, the group hopes to continue working with its clients on complex matters and use the San Francisco-based firm's platform to gain new clients and work.

“For us and for Orrick, we're both getting additional work that we wouldn't have gotten previously in this space because we're not competing against each other anymore but joining forces,” said Garko, who also specializes in trade secrets litigation.

Jared Bobrow, the co-leader of Orrick's IP practice who joined from Weil Gotshal & Manges last May, said intellectual property is a “core piece” of the firm's sector focus on technology and innovation.

“These folks are extremely strong litigators with a very strong intellectual property practice [and,] certainly in the trademark area, they're a destination practice,” he said.  

By opening in the Boston, like many other Am Law 200 firms, Orrick can get “top-shelf talent” in technology that can expand services to clients, Bobrow said.

Orrick already snagged several attorneys from Ropes & Gray, including the co-leads of its privacy and data security practice, Doug Meal and Heather Egan Sussman.

Meal now heads Orrick's cyber and privacy litigation and enforcement practice. Sussman manages the firm's Boston office and co-leads the cyber and privacy advisory practice along with Aravind Swaminathan, who joined Orrick from DLA Piper in 2015.

“This is an opportunity for us in Boston to have a really strong intellectual property offering and an offering upon which we can build going forward,” Bobrow said about the newest hires.