Womble Bond Dickinson, formed late last year via the combination between Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and the U.K.'s Bond Dickinson, has moved into a new office in Silicon Valley to house the lawyers it picked up after bolting on California-based intellectual property boutique Blakely Sokoloff Taylor Zafman.

Since clinching the Blakely Sokoloff deal in January, Womble Bond Dickinson has added more than 20 experienced IP lawyers and patent agents throughout California in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles and Sunnyvale.

“When we added the Sunnyvale office, we knew we wanted to get our entire Silicon Valley team together in one location as soon as possible,” said a statement from Michael Gencarella, managing partner of Womble Bond Dickinson's Golden State operations. “We found an ideal space in Page Mill Hill—one that's centrally located to our client base and that will allow our attorneys and staff to work collaboratively.”

The firm's Silicon Valley team of nearly 40 lawyers and staff has moved into the new office located within Palo Alto's Stanford Research Park. According to Womble Bond Dickinson, the roughly 19,000-square-foot office provides enough space for its existing team, as well as room to expand in the future.

With the boost from Blakely Sokoloff, Womble Bond Dickinson's Silicon Valley office will continue to focus its practice on IP services. The firm's Bay Area-based lawyers advise companies in complex corporate transactions, including entity formation, buy or sell agreements, licensing and government contracts.

The addition of Blakely Sokoloff and the firm's new Palo Alto outpost is the latest in a series of expansion efforts by the firm, which in January brought on Taylor English Duma mechanical and medical device team leader Kean DeCarlo as a partner in Atlanta. Womble Bond Dickinson now has more than 1,000 lawyers spread across 24 offices throughout the U.S. and U.K.

In April, Womble Bond Dickinson nabbed financial services litigation partner Eric Troutman in Costa Mesa from Dorsey & Whitney, which in January had named him its new Southern California office head. Earlier this month, Womble Bond Dickinson brought on Maggie Watkins to serve as its new senior client service director in California.

In recent months, Womble Bond Dickinson has absorbed seven-lawyer communications and technology boutique Bennet & Bennet, which has offices in Bethesda, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., while also picking up a three-partner government contracts team in the nation's capital from Pepper Hamilton.