Darryl Woo, a former litigation chair at Fenwick & West who in 2014 jumped to Vinson & Elkins, where he served as co-chair of intellectual property, is joining Goodwin Procter.

Woo will be an IP litigation partner in the firm's San Francisco office. Before moving to Vinson & Elkins three years ago, Woo spent 14 years at Fenwick & West, where he chaired that firm's patent litigation group and served as its overall litigation head for seven years.

“I look forward to collaborating with my California colleagues, as well as those across the globe,” Woo said. “Particularly, I am very excited to be joining Neel Chatterjee and Brett Schuman, together we'll have three first-chair IP trial lawyers in California. I think that is a pretty compelling proposition.”

Schuman, who once led Morgan, Lewis & Bockius' San Francisco litigation practice, joined Goodwin Procter in late 2014 as the firm's second IP partner in the Bay Area. Three years later, Chatterjee, a longtime patent litigator at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, headed to Goodwin Procter's Silicon Valley office.

Douglas Kline

Douglas Kline, chair of Goodwin Procter's IP litigation group, said his firm has been building out its IP practice in the Bay Area. Goodwin Procter, which re-branded itself “Goodwin” for marketing purposes in 2016, now has about 80 to 100 lawyers involved in its firmwide IP litigation practice, 15 of whom are based on the West Coast, the firm said.

“We have been very fortunate and gratified for the momentum we had in Northern California,” said Kline, who joined Goodwin Procter's Boston office in 2005 from Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, where he chaired that now-defunct firm's patent litigation group. “Big Law litigation has not experienced as much growth over the last six years, even back from the financial collapse, and our experience in IP litigation has continued to have a lot momentum. Our practice reflects that and we are excited to continue to build on that.”

Woo's practice focuses on patent litigation, trade secrets litigation and other complex technology disputes, and primarily involves clients in the biotechnology, information technology, life sciences and semiconductor sectors.

As a veteran trial lawyer, Woo has tried numerous cases to verdict and has first-chair jury trial and U.S. International Trade Commissioner experience. Some of his notable cases include obtaining a $74.7 million jury verdict a decade ago in the Northern District of California on behalf of Asyst Technologies Inc. and representing original online music-sharing service Napster Inc. in IP litigation. (Napster became an online music store in 2011 when Rhapsody International Inc. bought the business from consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc.)

Darryl Woo

Although patent litigation is still an important part of his practice, Woo said his clients are increasingly getting involved with complex technology disputes that “may or may not be tied” to a particular type of IP issue, such as copyrights, patents and trademarks.

Woo also recently served as a technical adviser to the fifth season of “Silicon Valley,” a hit cable television comedy show on HBO about an engineer trying to build his own startup company.

“My interest in China and Asia, in particular, was one of the reasons why people sought me out as technical adviser for 'Silicon Valley,'” Woo explained.

With Woo's addition, Goodwin Procter now has more than 70 lawyers in San Francisco, where the firm set up shop in 2006. Goodwin Procter also moved its Silicon Valley office in April from Menlo Park, California, to nearby Redwood City, where the firm now has more than 70 lawyers.

In April, Goodwin Procter brought on former Fenwick & West private equity partners Scott Joachim and David Johanson for its office in Redwood City, although the firm subsequently saw private equity partner Jared Jensen depart for Sidley Austin in San Francisco.