The downtown office of Morrison & Foerster was recently bolstered with the addition of 20 attorneys and staff members, thanks to the firm’s merger with litigation boutique Durie Tangri.

The combination of the two San Francisco-based firms went into effect at the New Year, with Durie Tangri holdovers also joining Morrison & Foerster — or MoFo — offices in San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Financial terms from the merger were not disclosed.

Managing Partner Purvi Patel will remain in charge of MoFo’s Los Angeles operations, which now boasts 77 attorneys — placing it among the largest 30 or so of law firm offices here.

“It was a very natural fit on our side,” Patel said of the merger. “Our sector focus and areas of practice are highly synergistic — advising tech- and life sciences-focused companies on their most complex intellectual property and civil litigation matters and taking high-stakes cases to trial. Our cultural alignment was also obvious, in particular our shared commitment to diversity and inclusion.”

Durie Tangri, formed in 2009, had spent more than a dozen years building a reputation for its litigation prowess, having obtained defense verdicts for Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard in a copyright case, Redbubble in a copyright and trademark-infringement case and Aptiv in a patent case. It launched its Los Angeles office in 2018, opening its doors in the Arts District.

“Durie Tangri’s growth trajectory has been very impressive,” Patel said. “In just over a decade they considerably expanded their client base and capabilities. Many of our attorneys have tried cases with and against Durie Tangri lawyers over the years. There was already a lot of mutual respect between our firms and a shared tradition of excellence.”

It has been fun to get to know the breadth and diversity of talent at MoFo.

Daralyn Durie
Durie Tangri

Transforming careers

Daralyn Durie, a cofounder of Durie Tangri and now a partner with MoFo, said the new global platform for her former firm’s attorneys will be “transformational” for their careers. Although numerous firms had engaged her firm about merging throughout the years, Durie said none ever felt like the right cultural fit with the proper synergies — until now.

“It has been fun to get to know the breadth and diversity of talent at MoFo,” she said. “I think we are finding ourselves to be very aligned culturally and we’re very excited about this next chapter.”

A total of 36 attorneys from Durie Tangri joined MoFo during the transition, including 12 partners. In Los Angeles, that included four partners and six associates.

MoFo has expanded its footprint in recent years, opening an office in Austin last year and another in Boston in 2019. The firm also added an intellectual property practice in its London office, a practice area enhanced by the addition of Durie Tangri’s litigators.

In representing Activision Blizzard, Durie Tangri successfully defended the video game developing and publishing giant against a 2018 accusation targeting the popular “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.” That suit claimed the design of a character from the game bore strong similarities to a character in professional wrestler Booker T’s comic book, “G.I. Bro and the Dragon Of Death.”

Durie Tangri’s strength will especially complement MoFo, known globally for its intellectual property and patent law practices. The firm has litigated more than 300 patent disputes in United States District Courts, including those in the eastern and western districts of Texas, the district of Delaware, and the northern and central districts of California.

Whether MoFo targets other firms for mergers in the immediate future remains up in the air.

“Right now, we remain focused on integrating our new colleagues from Durie Tangri,” Patel said. “Having said that, Morrison Foerster has always been committed to strategically investing in capabilities that add value for our clients. To advance these objectives, we regularly seek and consider opportunities to add new partners and grow the firm. That will continue to be the case on a going-forward basis.”