International law firm McDermott Will & Emery is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Austin, Texas, with a team of eight intellectual property (IP) partners: Kevin Meek, Syed Fareed, Stephen Hash, Paula Heyman, Brian Oaks, Margaret Sampson, Nick Schuneman and Brett Thompsen.

“Austin is a vibrant and exciting market for both clients and top talent and we are delighted to be part of its strong growth trajectory—it’s a natural fit for us.” said Ira Coleman, McDermott’s Chairman. “In addition to this fantastic group of intellectual property expertise, there is also wonderful alignment with our power alley practices—particularly technology, healthcare and litigation—that we very much look forward to building on.”

“We’re focused on growth across McDermott’s IP, transactions and litigation practices, with parallel concentration across the technology, health and life sciences industries,” Michael S. Poulos, McDermott’s head of strategy, added. “We’re excited that this tailor-made IP group is launching McDermott in Austin and have no doubt that we will have more expansion developments to announce in the very near term.”

This group follows a series of strategic IP partner hires throughout 2021 including Simon Roberts, Jason Leonard, Maxwell “Mac” Fox, Douglas H. Carsten and Adam W. Burrowbridge.

“Opening an office in the Western District of Texas allows us to take full advantage of the growing influx of patent case filings in Texas since the largest percentage of all district court patent litigation cases are now filed in Texas,” William Gaede, head of McDermott’s Global Intellectual Property Practice Group, noted. “This team of elite practitioners boosts our practice’s strength in both IP litigation and IP transactions and is a bold move advancing our remarkable IP practice into an industry powerhouse. We are excited to see what the coming months bring as we welcome the team to our global IP platform.”

Kevin Meek will be appointed as the office managing partner of the new office. Health partner Amanda K. Jester will also relocate from our Dallas to Austin office at opening.

“This is an incredible opportunity for this team to lay the foundation of a new office in a booming IP market and the Firm has given us the platform and support to make this both a near term and long-term success,” Kevin said. “Our group was initially attracted to McDermott’s global reach and the sophisticated legal talent of our new colleagues, and once we began conversations with the Firm, there were simply too many current and prospective client- and cross-practice synergies to count. We knew right away that joining McDermott just made sense.”

The Austin launch brings McDermott’s total global office locations to 22. Read more about the Austin office.

McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. With more than 20 locations on three continents, our team works seamlessly across practices, industries and geographies to deliver highly effective solutions that propel success. More than 1,200 lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.