Gray Cary wins IP four after Limbach closes

Silicon Valley powerhouse Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich is picking up a team of four partners from intellectual property (IP) boutique Limbach & Limbach, which closed its doors at the end of last year.

Name partners Karl and George Limbach will join Gray Cary along with Ronald Yin and Gerald Sekimura. The move comes despite Karl Limbach telling The Lawyer in December that the firm was close to a merger with Morrison & Foerster (The Lawyer, 4 December).

Client conflicts are understood to have been one of the biggest factors in choosing which firm to join, and a move to Gray Cary's IP technology group proved the most attractive.

Limbach & Limbach shut down because of problems with the lease on its property, and two sets of partners have launched their own practices. Michael Stallman and Michael Pollock formed their own firm with fellow partner Kathleen Frost. Partners Philip Girard and Alfred Equitz have also set up their own practice.

Partners Veronica Devitt and John Uilkema are joining Thelen Reid & Priest, and Mark Pickering is joining Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, now Pillsbury Winthrop. The remaining partners join McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen and Howard Rice Nemerovski Can-ady Falk & Rabkin. Morrison & Foerster gets of counsel Thomas McCarthy.