Dorsey & Whitney joins forces with California’s Flehr Hohbach to create a worldwide leader in intellectual property law

Deal Rounds Out Dorsey’s IP Law Capability and Provides Centerpiece for West Coast Presence

Dorsey & Whitney LLP, http://www.dorseylaw.com/ a full-service international law firm

(with offices in Great Falls and Missoula- Russ)

emphasizing business and technology clients, today announced that it is joining forces with Flehr Hohbach Test Albritton & Herbert LLP, a leading boutique law firm with a sophisticated intellectual property practice in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

The transaction creates a firm that uniquely offers top-tier expertise in intellectual property law — including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and unfair competition — backed by a comprehensive menu of legal services on three continents.

The decision to combine the resources of these two firms has been unanimously approved by Dorsey’s policy committee and has been approved by Flehr Hohbach’s partners. The transaction is slated to close today. Going forward, Flehr Hohbach attorneys will operate under the Dorsey & Whitney name.

Flehr Hohbach’s offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, combined with Dorsey offices in Southern California, Seattle, Denver and Salt Lake City, provide a premier IP legal capability in the western United States. The addition of Flehr’s 27 attorneys, four technical advisors and two patent agents enhances the intellectual property expertise at Dorsey, which already employed 120 attorneys active in IP legal issues.

In joining Dorsey, Flehr Hohbach now offers its clients a complete range of legal services, including top talent in practice areas such as corporate finance, technology licensing, complex litigation and M&A, which affect and are affected by intellectual property considerations. The new IP attorneys will also benefit from Dorsey’s emerging companies practice, which works closely with venture capital and private equity firms.

"This transaction makes Dorsey the ideal law firm choice for any company seeking top quality IP legal capabilities from a global full-service firm, a combination that is extremely rare and very appealing to clients of both our firms," said partner Craig Diviney. "We are pleased to welcome these new partners and associates from Flehr Hohbach."

"Our clients in high-tech industries such as biotech, pharmaceuticals, mechanical and electrical engineering will benefit from our ability to draw on a much greater base of legal expertise, not only in North America but in Europe and Asia as well," said Robin Silva, one of the nine attorneys joining Dorsey as partners from Flehr Hohbach.

The consolidation of the two law firms provides a number of synergistic benefits:
· Full-service West Coast presence — Dorsey’s Costa Mesa, California office performs a substantial amount of litigation business in Northern California but has not had a physical presence there. Flehr Hohbach conducts business in Southern California but has no office there. These three California offices, combined with substantial litigation and corporate capabilities in Dorsey’s Seattle, Denver and Salt Lake City offices, gives the firm a powerful West Coast presence that will be further enhanced by the relocation of several Dorsey partners to the San Francisco Bay Area.

· Complementary industry emphases — Flehr Hohbach’s preeminent position in biotechnology patent work supplements Dorsey’s growing IP practice. Both firms have sophisticated electrical and computer patent practices, but with different areas of focus. The combined firm has extensive expertise in virtually every "industry of innovation."

· Ability to take on large cases — Flehr Hohbach’s expertise in litigation and technology transfer work has been limited to smaller cases due to a lack of resources necessary to take on larger cases. Backed by Dorsey’s expertise and capacity, including extensive trial experience, the new IP attorneys can now take on cases of any size and complexity.

· Enhanced client list — The combination of talent from the two firms allows each to offer comprehensive service to a client base that includes a "who’s who" of innovative industries: biotech leaders such as Genentech, Xencor, Illumina and Genencor; high-tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies and Dionex; emerging pharmaceutical companies such as Rigel Pharmaceuticals; and educational institutions such as California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and U.C. Regents, to name a few.

"At the end of the day, all the advantages of joining forces would not have mattered if there had not been a good fit between our corporate cultures," said Dorsey partner and executive committee member William Hippee. "Fortunately, we share a common philosophy of putting clients first and of maintaining a positive work environment for our attorneys. That philosophy has helped both our firms attract some of the best legal minds in the business."

About Flehr Hohbach Test Albritton & Herbert LLP

For more than 50 years, Flehr Hohbach has provided sophisticated intellectual property legal services to clients in Silicon Valley and throughout California. Conversant in the language of scientific theory, Flehr’s prosecution attorneys are adept at explaining state-of-the-art technologies to patent examiners, and the firm’s litigation attorneys are skilled at translating technical concepts into language understandable to judges and juries.

About Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Dorsey is an international law firm with more than 750 lawyers in 22 offices in the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. One of the world’s largest law firms, Dorsey has nearly doubled in size over the last four years as it bolstered its traditional strength in corporate finance and complex litigation with a focus on clients in international business and technology fields.