A one-time Perkins Coie associate has returned to the firm as a partner, coming from the top-grossing Am Law 100 firm.

Sarah Piepmeier is now a partner in Perkins Coie's San Francisco office. She most recently served as one of the leaders of Kirkland & Ellis' Bay Area patent litigation practice.

Sarah Piepmeier of Perkins Coie.

Piepmeier rejoined the Seattle-based firm's intellectual property practice Monday. She said she began working at Perkins Coie as a summer associate in 2002,and then stayed with the firm as an associate through 2006. Piepmeier said she was drawn back to Perkins Coie because she still has "a lot of friends" that work at the firm.

"But, what really matters to me and why this homecoming is so important to me is that Perkins really has technology in the DNA of its firm, and as a West Coast firm that really focuses so heavily on the technology sector," Piepmeier continued. "That is a natural fit for me in my IP litigation practice."

For the past 15 years, Piepmeier has primarily been working with tech companies in the Bay Area. In addition to patent litigation, her practice also includes trade secrets, copyright, trademark, false advertising and antitrust matters, as well as technology-related commercial litigation and constitutional law.

Before joining Kirkland in 2011, Piepmeier spent five years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's San Francisco office.

"We're excited to welcome Sarah back to Perkins Coie," Shannon Bloodworth, co-chair of Perkins Coie's intellectual property practice, said in a statement. "With her extensive experience litigating complex patent cases, Sarah will augment our talent in the Bay Area and further enhance our ability to serve our clients' most demanding IP needs."

Seattle-based Perkins Coie opened its offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in 1998, with its Menlo Park office relocating to Palo Alto in 2010. According to the 973-lawyer firm, it currently has more than 125 attorneys and professional staff working out of the firm's San Francisco office on Howard Street. Firmwide, Perkins Coie said it has more than 250 lawyers involved in the IP practice.

"It's a big group and intellectual property is something that Perkins Coie really emphasizes in a way that I [found] compelling when I was considering this opportunity," Piepmeier said.

Piepmeier was named by The Recorder as one of the Women Leaders in Tech Law in 2018. While at Kirkland, she has helped the firm triple the number of women IP litigators in its Bay Area offices.

Piepmeier is also an advocate and supporter of the Bay Area LGBTQ+ community. During her tenure at Gibson Dunn, she worked at a core member of the trial team for plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. That case successfully overturned California's Proposition 8, which eliminated same-sex couples' right to marry in that state.

"That was a life-changing case for me, and I think for many of us who worked on it, and being members of the LGBT community [that was] granted rights through that case," Piepmeier said. "When the trial court decision came down on—I believe it was August 4, 2010—was one of the proudest days of my life."

Piepmeier said since then she has continued to work on a number of other LGBTQ marriage cases, and she intends to continue her civil rights work at Perkins Coie.

In a statement about Piepmeier's departure, a Kirkland spokesperson said: "We enjoyed having Sarah on our IP team and we wish her well at her new law firm."

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Women Leaders in Tech Law 2018: Sarah Piepmeier, Kirkland & Ellis