Hammonds IP team suffers fourth partner exit

Shaw Pittman is on the verge of recruiting its first lateral hire since last year’s exodus of lawyers to Morrison & Foerster by taking Hammonds IP partner Phillip Rees.

Hammonds is enduring its own exodus. Hammonds head of IT Ged O’Neill left in December and Rees will be the fourth IP partner to leave in the past few months.

Global head of IP Marija Danilunas left for LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae in November. Jonathan Moore and Kathleen Harris, who joined the firm with Rees from McDermott Will & Emery, have also left. Rees and Harris joined less than two years ago amid much fanfare about a big push into IP.

Before joining Hammonds, Rees spent three years as a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, which he joined from the in-house team at Citibank. Rees is an IT specialist but comes at it from an IP angle rather than being the outsourcing specialist normally associated with Shaw Pittman.

Hammonds did not return calls for comment.