© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(June 16) – Blank Rome recently announced it more than doubled its presence in Houston by combining with the IP law firm Wong Cabello.
The Philadelphia-based firm, which opened an outpost in Houston in 2011, now has 40 lawyers in its lone Texas office. In total, Blank Rome is adding 11 partners, four of counsel and nine associates from the Houston-based IP firm. They are also brining on professional staff.
David Cabello, who will serve as co-chair of Blank Rome’s Intellectual Property and Technology group, said though his firm enjoyed being on their own, they started looking hard at possibilities to merge last fall.
“We were looking for a larger platform and our clients were looking for service outside of IP work,” he said. “Blank Rome was a very good fit culturally.”
Alan Hoffman, Blank Rome’s chairman and managing partner, said the firm had been looking to grow its IP practice and expand in “Tier 1” cities where clients need them.
Cabello and his colleagues Lou Brucculeri, Keith Rutherford and Russell Wong first met as attorneys at Arnold, White & Durkee in Houston. They later worked together in the general counsel’s office of Compaq Computer Corp in the 1990s, where they worked closely with Keith Lutsch.
The five lawyers decided to establish their own law firm in 2001. Their team represents Polycom, Brocade, Weatherford, Inventec, Nanoco, Corel and two Fortune 100 Silicon Valley-based companies in a variety of IP litigation and transactional matters.
Blank Rome moved into larger office space on June 1 to accommodate this move and future growth. The firm signed onto 27,144 square feet of office space at 717 Texas Avenue, Suite 1400.
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