(Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Hogan Lovells is expanding its intellectual property team on both coasts, adding a pair of partners from McDermott Will & Emery in Boston and a pair from Jones Day in San Francisco.

The firm announced Monday that Robert Underwood and Kristin Connarn, who focus on supporting life sciences transactions, are joining the firm in Boston, while Krista Schwartz and Patrick Michael, who litigate tech IP cases, are joining in San Francisco.

Burkhart Goebel, the global head of Hogan Lovells' intellectual property, media and technology practice said that while the firm views itself as the leading IP shop globally, that's not yet the case in the United States.

“We realized our strength in the U.S. is not on par with our strength in rest of the world,” he said.

In a bid to remedy this, he and U.S. intellectual property, media and technology group leader Celine Crowson spent six months crunching data from analytics provider Lex Machina and talking to recruiters before making a presentation to the firm's international management committee.

“We needed the backing not just for one project but for the entire process,” Goebel said.

The firm elected to prioritize three markets for growth: Boston, for life sciences transactional work; New York, for life sciences litigation; and San Francisco, for tech litigation. Goebel added that the firm's IP team in Washington was already robust and did not need to expand in the same fashion.

Next came the process of keying in on top talent. According to Goebel, Hogan Lovells focused in on attorneys in premier firms who were still on the rise, but already had very strong client relations.

Underwood, Connarn, Schwartz and Michael all fit the bill.

“The are partners who have not peaked yet, but are close to reaching the peak,” Goebel said.

Underwood and Connarn represent life science clients ranging from entrepreneurs and startups to multinationals. Underwood earlier in his career worked as a visiting scientist at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland, while Connarn worked as a molecular and cell biology research associate at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.

Schwartz, a first chair trial partner, represents some of the world's largest technology companies. Before law school, she worked as an inventor at AT&T Bell Laboratories. She pointed to the firm's international prowess as a critical part of its appeal.

“What I do in terms of intellectual property litigation really involves thing that are global in nature. You really have multiple front to the litigation. You might have somebody sued in China, Germany and the United States for example,” she said. ”Hogan really offers a unmatched platform to be able to handle those kind of complicated clients' needs.”

Michael's clients include integrated circuit makers, software companies and tool designers, and he has also tried multiple cases to verdict. He's worked closely with Schwartz for a number of years.

“We have been eye to eye on the opportunity to help build an elite IP practice here in northern California, and contribute to the Hogan Lovells'  global strength,” he said.

Crowson said the firm intended to look for additional talent in San Francisco and Boston. Hogan Lovells arrived in Boston in 2017, via a combination with local litigation and investigations boutique Collora.

“We want to grow based on our clients needs, and our clients are telling us that they welcome more bandwidth in those regions,” she said.

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