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Lynne Marek

The National Law Journal

January 10, 2008

Texas law firms have had so much space into which to expand in their big, politically conservative state that many of them haven't bothered with that other big state, the liberal one to the west.

Three of the four biggest firms with roots in Texas, including Baker Botts; Vinson & Elkins; and Haynes and Boone, have been absent from California, but that may be changing. Baker Botts and Haynes and Boone are exploring the possibility of opening offices in Northern California as soon as 2008. The firms say California clients and opportunities in the areas of intellectual property, high-technology, venture capital and Asia-related business are too important to handle from their Texas offices.

"Today, we do have an interest in California," said Terry Conner, the managing partner of Haynes and Boone, which has its primary base in Dallas. "California has a tremendous depth of clients and business. It should be of interest to Texas firms."

Texas and California lawyers have been a bit leery of each other historically, Conner said. Texas firms have had a cultural bent, particularly with respect to politics, that led them to avoid California, said Mark Jungers, a recruiter at legal search firm Major Lindsey & Africa who covers an area including Texas.

"On the cultural spectrum, they're very far apart," Jungers said.

Fulbright & Jaworski is one of the few Texas firms to have a sizable presence in Los Angeles, with about 70 lawyers there. Locke Liddell & Sapp launched an office in that city last year when it merged with Lord, Bissell & Brook to become Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

Now, the size of the Texas economy and the steady corporate wealth of high-technology companies are making the market too appealing to pass up as firms nationwide become more competitive and expansion-minded. Even the major New York firms that don't have offices elsewhere are in Silicon Valley, Jungers said.

"If you're not there, it becomes harder to do that kind of work," said Jungers, noting the headquarters of Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. "The new economy companies are all based in Silicon Valley."

Intellectual property litigation and patent prosecution work, as well as mergers and acquisitions business related to Asia, are driving Haynes and Boone's California interest, Conner said. The firm, which has 480 attorneys, has been growing more aggressively outside Texas in recent years and now has 70 lawyers away from the home base, he said.

The U.S. district court in Northern California is an increasingly important jurisdiction for patent litigation with technology companies based there driving the action and judges having become sophisticated in the area, said Bart Showalter, who leads the intellectual property group at Baker Botts.

"We've got a significant number of clients who have expressed an interest in us being out there," Showalter said. "There's going to be a lot of important clients in Asia that we serve, and to have a West Coast office is a benefit."

Baker Botts, which has 800 attorneys and 150 in the intellectual property group, plans to open an office this year, Showalter said. An office in Northern California will buttress the firm's ties to Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese clients who have operations there, Showalter said. It's a natural progression after the firm opened an office in Beijing last year, he said.

Baker Botts and Haynes and Boone expect to open the offices by relocating some lawyers and hiring others already in the city.