Geoffrey Perusse, Rimon Law (Photo: Courtesy photo)

Rimon, which recently boosted its intellectual property practice by bringing on an eight-person group from Duane Morris, has continued its California expansion by hiring private funds attorney Geoffrey Perusse from VLP Law Group.

Perusse was most recently the chair of VLP Law Group's private funds and investment management practice. He has joined Rimon's financial services team as a partner in its San Francisco and Lake Tahoe offices.

Perusse said he was particularly attracted to Rimon's “innovative organizational structure,” which he says will enable him and a team of lawyers to support clients across the country.

Perusse's practice focuses on private fund formation, investment activities, securities regulation and compliance matters. With Perusse's addition, Rimon has 28 partners in its financial services practice, including John Hanley, Ella Cohen and Suzanne L'Hernault, who also joined the cloud-based firm this year.

“With private equity becoming such a critical player in today's business marketplace, having lawyers with relevant expertise located in California provides additional client service benefits, and is a differentiator from many larger firms,” Perusse said.

Perusse expects that the strong fundraising will continue into 2019. “On the investment side, there is a very large amount of dry powder,” he said. “The current challenge is finding deals with decent pricing. I expect that a general market downturn could be helpful in finding opportunities to put capital to work.”

Rimon's CEO Michael Moradzadeh said in a Thursday announcement the firm is delighted to have Perusse on the team. “His deep private fund experience will help us better serve our financial services clients ranging from new funds to the largest funds in the world,” Moradzadeh said.

Rimon was founded in 2008 in San Francisco by Moradzadeh and his partner Yaacov Silberman, whom he met in 2004 while working as corporate attorneys at Ropes & Gray. The virtual law firm now has 20 offices, including one in Shenzhen, China, one in Rome and 18 in the United States.

This summer, Rimon opened an office in Kansas City, Missouri, after hiring longtime Husch Blackwell intellectual property litigator, Patrick Kuehl Jr.