Bingham McCutchen LLP’s Costa Mesa office has nabbed Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth’s Robert Funsten to lead its new West Coast healthcare practice.
Funsten, a former partner at Stradling, built up the Newport Beach-based firm’s healthcare practice when he joined in 2002. Hiring Funsten was a coup for Stradling, who lured him away from Corona’s Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he was a senior vice president and chief legal officer.
Before that, Funsten was vice president and general counsel at Chiron Vision Corp., which Bausch & Lomb Inc. bought in 1997.
Funsten will be the first West Coast lawyer to focus on healthcare for Boston-based Bingham. The firm has healthcare specialists at its headquarters.
Funsten, who isn’t bringing anyone with him from Stradling, is set to work on patents, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and securities work for drug makers, device makers and healthcare companies.
A majority of Funsten’s clients are moving with him to Bingham, he said. That includes drug maker Watson Pharmaceuticals and Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp., a heart valve maker.
Irvine eye drug maker Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. is another client. Funsten declined to say whether Ista would make the switch.
Joining Bingham, one of the largest firms with 11 U.S. offices and three internationally, was necessary to help grow his practice, Funsten said.
“I was looking for a firm that had a national platform that I could build my practice on, a firm that has real momentum behind it and a strategic focus for growth in Southern California,” he said.
Bingham’s OC office has focused on corporate work with an expertise in private equity and mergers and acquisitions, Loss said.
Funsten could help Bingham attract more drug and medical device makers, according to Jim Loss, managing partner of Bingham’s Costa Mesa office.
“He really brings value to clients because he understands the issues that they face,” Loss said.
Bingham has been growing its Costa Mesa office after bringing on several former Stradling lawyers last year.
The addition of a healthcare practice is crucial in OC. The county counts several healthcare service companies as well as medical device and drug makers, he said.
“The life science industry is big in Orange County and Bingham has made the decision to invest heavily in the Southern California market,” Loss said.
Stradling is OC’s third largest law firm with about 100 lawyers at its Newport Beach office. It also has offices in Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and San Diego.
Funsten was one of four partners in the firm’s healthcare practice. His departure won’t affect Stradling, according to shareholder and new healthcare practice head Lawrence Cohn.
“We’ll miss Rob but his departure doesn’t have a significant impact on our practice,” Cohn said. “Our firm already has a strong foothold in the medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical industries.”
Stradling’s healthcare practice has had its share of successes.
In October, the firm helped North Carolina-based TranS1Inc., a medical device company focused on developing minimally invasive surgeries for treatment of low back pain, stage an $82.5 million initial public offering.
Earlier this year, Stradling helped Irvine-based Allez Spine Inc., which develops spine surgery products, prevail in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Spine Inc. of Massachusetts.
The firm also recently defended generic drug maker Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga in a patent infringement suit brought by France’s Sanofi-Aventis.
Bingham came to OC in 2003 when it acquired Los Angeles-based Riordan & McKinzie PLC. The firm also recruited land-use lawyers from San Francisco-based Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP.
Bingham has been growing its local attorneys, counting just five in 2005. It now has 24 lawyers in OC.
Loss said the firm is looking to have 30 attorneys at its Costa Mesa office by next year and plans to recruit lawyers locally. He declined to disclose where these lawyers might be coming from.
