DLA Piper DLA Piper, San Francisco (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

DLA Piper, continuing its accelerated growth in California, has picked up a six-partner group from Nixon Peabody, adding to its San Francisco, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and New York offices.

The group joined the global firm on Wednesday as members in its corporate, intellectual property and technology and litigation practices. Leading the move to DLA Piper is corporate partner Thomas Gaynor, who most recently served as managing partner of Nixon Peabody's San Francisco office and led its corporate practice in California.

“I couldn't be happier, I couldn't be more humbled that this caliber of folks … decided to take a gamble with me and make the move to an exciting platform like DLA,” Gaynor said.

Also joining Gaynor on the corporate team are partner Jinjian Huang in San Francisco and partner Stephen Reil in Los Angeles. IP partner Maria Swiatek, who previously led Nixon Peabody's Palo Alto office, has moved over to DLA Piper's Silicon Valley office. She is joined by IP partner Christopher Mooney. Abigail Reardon, a veteran litigator at Nixon Peabody, has joined DLA's New York office.

In addition to their core practice strengths, the lawyers bring cross-border experience, Gaynor said, noting that the group has worked with companies based in Thailand, China, Japan and Australia.

According to Gaynor, all of their clients have followed the group to the DLA Piper. As a global firm, DLA Piper is able to offer their clients more comprehensive legal services with resource from multiple jurisdictions, he said.

“For clients, really at the end of the day, they want to work with people who intuitively understand what they want to do and deploy the talent that best helps them and best situates them,” Gaynor added.

DLA Piper, which saw its revenue jump by 7.7% to $2.84 billion last year, has been busy growing its practices in California over the past year. The roughly 3,700-lawyer firm currently has more than 350 lawyers in the state, which breaks down to about 165 in Northern California and nearly 200 in Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego.

“The addition of these lawyers is an important strategic element of our continued growth on the West Coast,” Louis Lehot, co-managing partner of DLA Piper's Silicon Valley office, said in a statement. “We are committed to providing our clients with exceptional advice and service, and their combined knowledge and experience will bolster our corporate, IPT and litigation practices, and be a tremendous resource to clients requiring sophisticated counsel.”

In a statement responding to the group's departure, a spokesperson from Nixon Peabody said the firm wishes partners well.

“We are having another very strong year,” the spokesperson said. “We have a great team, and we are always looking for opportunities to bring in talented attorneys who can add value for our clients.”

Nixon Peabody elected partner Karen Ng as the new managing partner of its San Francisco office in March. Meanwhile, its Silicon Valley office was closed in February 2017. Swiatek then relocated to San Francisco.

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