Citing persistent client conflicts and poor work flow with the U.S. side of the firm, Howrey’s Europe intellectual property head and at least 11 other partners are departing to set up a new IP firm. Fourteen associates are also expected to leave. “For the past several months we have wrestled with the increasingly serious issue of client conflicts—an issue which has presented enormous difficulties for certain European IP partners and for Howrey as those partners developed new business or expanded on existing business,” Howrey CEO and Chairman Robert F. Ruyak said in a statement. “For this reason, we have come to the mutual decision that it is in everyone’s best interest for this group to form their own independent firm and they do so with our best wishes.”
All but one of the partners and all but a few of the associates leaving are based in Amsterdam and Brussels, the two offices at the core of Howrey’s European IP practice. The two offices were the most profitable globally last year, according to the firm. The Amsterdam office has seven partners, all specializing in IP, as well as 11 other counsel and associates, according to the firm’s Web site. All are reported to be leaving. All four IP partners in the 40-lawyer Brussels office are also expected to leave. (A fifth IP partner in the office, Patricia Cappuyns, who was elevated to partner in January, left Howrey independently in August.) One partner and a few associates are leaving the Paris office, the firm confirmed. – Julie Triedman
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