Intellectual Property Attorney Leads Team Exodus

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One of the biggest local names in intellectual property has a new home.

Richard de Bodo, who has won high-profile patent cases for clients including Dow Jones & Co. and Abraxis BioScience, left the Century City office of Hogan Lovells last week for DLA Piper LLP.

Joining him at DLA Piper’s Century City office will be what was essentially the entire intellectual property team at Hogan Lovells’ Century City office, including partners Siegmund Gutman, Robert Benson, Christopher Broderick, Troy Schmelzer and Lawrence McClure.

In May, Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson and London-based Lovells merged to form Hogan Lovells. De Bodo, 54, said conflicts of interest created by the merger were preventing his team from taking cases.

“We found ourselves in a series of cases having to say we can’t do that because of conflicts we hadn’t had before the merger,” he said. “From our examination, we don’t have the same types of conflicts at DLA Piper.”

DLA Piper has been seeking to grow its ties to Japan, where several of de Bodo’s clients are based, as well as its patent litigation practice and Century City office, said John Allcock, global co-chair of DLA Piper’s intellectual property practice.

“These guys matched up on all three,” Allcock said. “There are only a small handful of people on the West Coast that have the track record these guys do.”

Alan Miles, principal at Santa Monica legal search firm Alan Miles and Associates Inc., estimated de Bodo’s book of business to be between $15 million and $20 million.

“It’s an unbelievable move for DLA Piper,” he said. “If you talk to people at DLA, they think they’re a major player in IP, but I don’t. That’s why they need de Bodo; he brings the oomph, if you will.”

De Bodo declined to comment on his book of business, his compensation or how many other firms he considered.

Gaining Traction

Ever since Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith LLP merged with London-based Richards Butler LLP in 2007, the firm has been trying to establish an entertainment presence in Hollywood to complement the entertainment practice it picked up in London. Firm leaders say their recent landing of partner James Thoma from the Century City office of Miami-based Greenberg Traurig LLP is the latest signal they’re gaining traction.

Thoma, who established the entertainment practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s Century City office, marks the third partner to move to Reed Smith’s entertainment group in five months. He follows former Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP entertainment chair Michael S. Sherman and video game-focused Patrick Sweeney.

There are now 12 entertainment attorneys in the firm’s Century City offices, up from four a year ago.

“It’s taken us a while to find the right players,” said John M. Iino, chair of Reed Smith’s business and finance department. “Fortunately we were able to get Michael, and building on that we were able to get Patrick, and then able to get James.”

Thoma, who specializes in film financing and has represented financiers of movies including “Dances With Wolves” and last year’s “Terminator Salvation,” said he wanted to take advantage of Reed Smith’s presence in Hong Kong and China. He already has several Chinese clients, and said that Asian-funded movies, such as last year’s John Woo epic “Red Cliff,” indicate China’s growing muscle in film financing.

“What’s happened is the money has shifted to Eastern Asia and to China specifically, so having a place at the table in China was important for me,” he said. “So many funds are popping up there that it’s hard to keep count of.”

Big Payday

Nine months after forming, family law boutique Knowles Collum LLP has notched what it’s touting as its biggest win yet.

The firm was founded in December by attorneys Steven Knowles and Michael Collum, who in the past have represented high-profile clients such as Nicole Kidman, Gregory Peck and Britney Spears. Knowles and Collum are same-sex partners in real life, and have recently found something of a niche handling same-sex family law matters,

which comprise about 20 percent of their business.

But it’s a different subcommunity they tapped into for their recent success. In August, a judge awarded Knowles Collum about

$1 million in pretrial attorney fees in a divorce case involving client Kathrin Saadian and local developer George Saadian, who are well-known in the local Persian community.

Such fees typically range from $50,000 to $250,000, Collum said, but it’s unusually high this time because the case has been particularly litigious. The money will come from George Saadian’s assets, and from refinancing the couple’s home in Beverly Hills. Kathrin Saadian also was temporarily granted $22,000 per month in temporary spousal and child support.

“It’s our biggest win to date for sure,” said Collum, 47, who added that the firm hired a third attorney in August. “We are already getting quite a few telephone calls from people in the Persian community.”

Staff reporter Alfred Lee can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 221.

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