V&E Opens in San Francisco with Plans to Expand

By Mark Curriden
Vinson & Elkins announced Monday that it has opened an office in San Francisco with five lawyers from its Palo Alto office. But the firm said that it plans to double or triple the size of the new office “in pretty short order” through lateral hires.
One potential expansion target for V&E’s new west coast office is a group of 11 intellectual property lawyers who left Dewey & LeBoeuf last week to form their own IP boutique in the Bay Area.
V&E Chairman Mark Kelly said the firm’s San Francisco office is focusing initially on complex commercial litigation, especially white-collar criminal and antitrust matters. Matthew Jacobs, a former high-profile federal prosecutor in San Francisco, will be leading the firm’s efforts. V&E opened its Palo Alto office in 2010.
The firm has 11 lawyers in California, but Kelly says he believes that will “double or triple in size in pretty short order.”

“We don’t have a specific timeframe in mind, but we plan to diligently pursue laterals hires that fit our needs and would work well in our firm’s culture,” he says. “Opening an office in San Francisco provides us the opportunity to attract some of those laterals who want to stay in the Bay Area, but who would be a good fit for our firm.
“We aren’t going to go out there and spend a lot of money just to add laterals and then hope the business comes to us,” he says. “We have to be smarter and more strategic.”
Kelly says that V&E is still interested in former Dewey IP partner Henry Bunsow and his group of 11 lawyers, which are based in San Francisco.
“Henry and his team are clearly very attractive to us and could be a great fit,” Kelly says.
The Texas Lawbook reported May 7 that Bunsow and his group were in negotiations with V&E. However, lawyers familiar with the discussions say that the Dewey group had a “couple specific patent litigation matters” that directly conflicted with a significant V&E client.
In an interview with The Recorder, which is an American Lawyer Media publication based in California, Bunsow indicated that the former Dewey group decided to open their own small shop in order to take more time to sift through its offers from various law firms.
However, lawyers said Monday that Bunsow’s group may have created the boutique temporarily in order to finish the specific litigation matters that were causing the conflict and that they may restart discussions with V&E at some point in the future.
The Bunsow group is highly sought because it is believed that they bring a book of business that could exceed $20 million annually, according to lawyers formerly at Dewey.
“V&E is smart to continue its pursuit of these guys,” said a lawyer with knowledge of the situation. “I think the group prefers the support of a large law firm. Then again, they could get on their own for a year, make a boatload of money and decide they enjoy not having to worry about so many conflicts.”
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