Baker Botts is opening an office in San Francisco, giving the firm a second base in California and taking its number of global offices to 15.
The new office will be headed by real estate partner Patricia Stanton, who is currently the partner-in-charge of the firm’s Dallas office. She will be replaced by Dallas head of litigation Tim Durst who will become the region’s new partner-in-charge.
Stanton will be joined by IP litigation partners Bryant Boren and Eliot Williams, as well as trial partner Kevin Sadler and corporate partner Brian Lee, who will all serve clients in both the new office and Baker Botts’ existing Palo Alto base.
Kirkland & Ellis intellectual property partner Jeremy Taylor is also joining the firm in San Francisco as special counsel.
The firm hopes to have half a dozen lawyers based in San Francisco on a full and half-time basis.
Baker Botts managing partner Andrew Baker said San Francisco “traditionally has been viewed as the region’s financial and cultural center, as well as a gateway to Asia.”
However, he added it has increasingly “become a destination for both established and start-up technology companies”.
A number of firms have opened offices in San Francisco over the past two years, including A&L Goodbody, Osborne Clarke and Taylor Wessing.
