Venable's acquisition of IP firm boosts headcount by 104 lawyers
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Venable is acquiring the intellectual property firm Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto.
The combination will add 104 Fitzpatrick lawyers to Venable, expanding its IP practice to about 175 lawyers and its total headcount to nearly 800 lawyers, report Bloomberg News, the American Lawyer and a press release.
The merger is expected to take place on Nov. 1 and will boost Venable into the ranks of the nation’s top 50 law firms by headcount.
The Fitzpatrick IP lawyers will initially be known as Venable Fitzpatrick, while Venable’s name won’t change.
Fitzpatrick lost more than 25 percent of its lawyers from 2016 to 2017, which the firm partly attributed to retirements, according to the American Lawyer. Management committee chair Dominick Conde told the American Lawyer that head count has been stable in 2018 and “we’re in a really strong position.”
The combination will give Fitzpatrick’s IP clients in the pharmaceutical industry access to Venable’s product liability services, Conde told Bloomberg. Since 2007, nearly half of Venable’s cases involve product liability.
