Patent attorneys are in strong demand across the country. With patent applications having more than tripled over the past two decades (reaching over 440,000 last year), and patent lawyers making up only about 3 percent of the nation’s 1.1 million active attorneys, the competition between firms to recruit them is fierce. The field is especially demanding because it requires scientific or technical expertise along with a law degree, making the patent lawyers out there hot commodities. First-year associates at large firms can expect a 10 percent to 15 percent premium over base pay of about $160,000. An IP partner at a top firm typically is hired at $700,000 or $800,000, even $1 million a year, even with a small book of business.
Source: www.baltimoresun.com

Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner is the last major California firm to announce a pay raise as a part of the recent wave of increases. Rather than establishing a starting salary of $160,000 across the board, Thelen Reid created a two-tier pay structure that pays associates that work 2,000 hours a year $160,000, and pays those that work less $145,000. The two-tier scale will be effective on July 1 in California, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. This structure allows more flexibility for those associates who balance life/work issues, putting less pressure on them to perform up to a $160,000 standard. The associates can move between the two tiers without falling off the partner track – twice a year they can move into the 2,000-hour tier, and they can move back into the less-than-2,000-hour option once. Fenwick & West has a similar system, letting associates choose between a 1,800 or 1,950-hour pay scale.
Source: www.law.com

Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold picked up six real estate lawyers from the now dissolved Woo & Associates. The lawyers, who specialize in representing landlords, will join Sedgwick’s San Francisco office. Sedgwick’s real estate practice already included litigation and transactional services for a wide range of commercial real estate owners, developers, managers, lessees and professionals.
Source: www.charlotte.bizjournals.com

Jesse Markham Jr. is leaving Morrison Foerster to join Holme Roberts & Owen in San Francisco as the antitrust team co-chair. At MoFo, Markham was the co-chair of the antitrust group for three years. His reasons for the move included lower billing rates and an opportunity to grow HRO’s practice. With the new addition, Denver-based HFO will have 19 lawyers in its San Fran office. Markham aims to establish one of the “go-to” antitrust practices in the country, but some say that will be difficult without a larger group of lawyers and in a firm that isn’t known for its antitrust work.
Source: www.law.com

Wilson Sonsini will be closing its Salt Lake City office within the next two months. The 13-lawyer office opened in 2001. The Silicon Valley firm decided to close the office in order to bring partner Robert O’Connor back to the San Francisco office where he will help organize and manage the clean-tech practice. Corporate partner Mark Bonham will stay in Salt Lake, joining local firm Ray Quinney & Nebeker, along with four associates.
Source: www.law.com

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has merged with Lewis Fisher Henderson & Claxton opening two new offices in Memphis, TN, and Jackson, MS. The merger will add 19 lawyers to Ogletree’s 365. Though Memphis had not been a city that Ogletree had been considering, it will allow the firm to service Western Tennessee, Arkansas, and parts of Mississippi. Moreover, only one other labor & employment boutique, Ford & Harrison, has an office in Memphis. Ogletree has opened six new offices since the beginning of 2005, and now has 30 nationwide.
Source: www.law.com