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Rutan & Tucker Shifts Focus to Intellectual Property Practice

Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker LLP is growing its intellectual property practice,a change in focus for the firm driven by real estate and public law.

Rutan recently added two intellectual property lawyers to its Costa Mesa office. They ajoined from the Irvine office of San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster LLP.

Rutan also added one lawyer to its Palo Alto practice.

The firm could add five or more lawyers to its intellectual property practice this year, according to L. Ski Harrison, a hiring partner in the firm’s executive committee.

Rutan also is in talks to bring in other lawyers from undisclosed local boutique law firms that specialize in patents and trademark law, he said.

“We’re really focused on developing this as a practice area within the firm,” Harrison said. “We’ve been focusing on looking for the right mix of personalities with professional expertise.”

Rutan wants to recruit lawyers on the partner level since these attorneys typically have established practices and clients, Harrison said.

The firm is Orange County’s largest by number of local lawyers. Last year, Rutan counted 156 lawyers in Costa Mesa and five attorneys in Palo Alto.

In recent years, the firm has largely focused on real estate and government law work, areas that have served it well against rivals Irvine-based Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP and Newport Beach’s Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth LLP.

Rutan’s local clients include Lake Forest-based ARB Inc. and Santa Ana-based First American Corp.’s title insurance arm.

The firm’s effort to expand its intellectual property practice comes as law firms are seeing a slowdown in work related to real estate.

Rutan isn’t immune to the downturn,real estate work has slowed, Harrison said.

But Harrison insists that Rutan still is generating work from real estate transactions as well as industry mergers and acquisitions. The firm also has kept busy this year by helping real estate companies restructure their business plans, he said.

Litigation work related to an upswing of lawsuits should pick up next year, Harrison said.

“Yes (real estate) is a little slow but we’re certainly not panicked about it at all,” he said.

Rutan had been considering growing its intellectual property practice before the real estate market and economy slowed, Harrison said. The firm has been planning to add more lawyers to its intellectual property practice for about a year, he said.

Other work, such as public law, has kept the firm busy, Harrison said. Corporate work such as mergers and acquisitions, tax work and securities litigation have been robust, he said.

Rutan’s corporate clients have been seeking help with intellectual property issues, Harrison said.

The firm decided to expand rather than refer clients to other law firms, he said.

The intellectual property practice isn’t the only area that Rutan wants to grow this year. The firm wants to deepen its corporate practice by recruiting more lawyers who can work on mergers and securities, Harrison said.

Rutan’s corporate department, which includes intellectual property lawyers, counts 25 attorneys.

Competition is steep in such practice areas.

Knobbe Martens, OC’s second largest law firm with 142 local lawyers in 2007, focuses solely on patent and trademark law. The firm could displace Rutan as the county’s biggest law firm as it expects to have 160 lawyers in the fall.

Knobbe Martens is the only local firm to boast a national business through its list of national and international clients and office locations.

It counts Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. and Masimo Corp., Japan’s Yamaha Corp. and South Korea’s Samsung Corp. as clients.

Other local competition includes Stradling Yocca, which counted 120 lawyers in OC last year. It’s the third biggest law firm in the county.

Stradling has an intellectual property practice but is best known for its role in securities work and litigation, mergers and acquisitions, private equity deals and general corporate representation.

Stradling worked on a $100 million financing for Irvine-based online advertising company Specific Media Inc. from Menlo Park’s Francisco Partners. The funding easily was the county’s largest last year.

Last August, Stradling represented Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants LLC in its sale to San Francisco private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners.

Big firms with strong corporate and intellectual property practices also have OC offices such as Latham & Watkins LLP in Costa Mesa, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Irvine and O’Melveny & Myers in Newport Beach.

The county’s strong business climate should provide enough work for most firms, Harrison said.

“There’s enough with the corporate economy in Orange County to keep a lot of firms busy,” he said.

Some in the legal community wonder if Rutan’s image as a real estate heavy firm will make it more challenging to boost its intellectual property and corporate practices.

Harrison sees the firm’s transition as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

“Our history has been a steady progression of growth,” he said. “We look for the right opportunities.” n

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