Crowell & Moring and Chicago-based Brinks Gilson & Lione have joined forces. The deal brings together the practice of the premier 100-year old IP firm, recognized for its deep technical experience and scientific savvy, with Crowell & Moring’s intellectual property, technology, brand protection, and digital transformation capabilities. Brinks Gilson & Lione is renowned for assisting clients to maximize the value of cutting-edge technologies and advancing the interests of intellectual property owners.
With a proven track record in high-stakes intellectual property litigation, helping inventors tackle the unique challenges they face, and working with companies to protect their brands, Brinks has developed enduring client relationships, which range from large multinationals with sophisticated IP portfolios to emerging companies advancing business-forward innovations. Gustavo Siller, president of Brinks Gilson & Lione, will co-chair the firm’s Technology & Intellectual Property Department with Cheryl A. Falvey, one of the principal architects of Crowell & Moring’s digital transformation and technology practice and former general counsel of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Crowell & Moring has a long-established global regulatory, litigation, transactional, and public policy platform that provides guidance to clients ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to start-up companies across the broad spectrum of issues that accompany digital transformation and other advancements at the intersection of business and technology. The firm’s cross-disciplinary approach helps leading companies and entrepreneurs protect, commercialize, and bring new innovations to market, compete in the increasingly data-driven economy, mitigate risk, resolve disputes, and navigate a dynamic regulatory environment. With the addition of the Brinks team, Crowell & Moring becomes among the most active technology protection firms in the nation, as measured by patent activity tracked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Brinks team also brings experience helping clients with IP issues in international jurisdictions. They will deepen and extend Crowell & Moring’s global IP practice, which includes a team in the Brussels office that is consistently recognized for the sophisticated work they do for clients.
Joining Crowell & Moring are 60 lawyers, including 27 partners, 10 senior counsel, 23 counsel and associates, 5 registered patent agents, and 2 scientific advisors. This outstanding team of lawyers and professionals possesses more than 60 technical degrees. Their deep scientific knowledge strengthens the firm’s ability to support clients seeking to pursue technology and innovation-driven opportunities and enhances the firm’s marquee trial, litigation, and arbitration practices, both before the PTO and ITC, and across U.S. and international court venues.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to expand our reach with one of the most highly respected IP firms in the nation. We are particularly excited about enhancing and extending our collective ability to advise clients on the rapidly-evolving areas of their business that are affected – and increasingly transformed – by technology and innovation,” said Philip T. Inglima, chair of Crowell & Moring. “Brinks Gilson & Lione has earned a reputation for protecting well-known corporate brands and complex intellectual property assets in the U.S. and across the globe. The firm provides exceptional value to clients because of their deep experience in cutting-edge technology and the sciences, and their ability to deliver practical solutions to the most complex IP challenges.”
One of the nation’s top-tier intellectual property law firms, Brinks Gilson & Lione advises clients in a wide variety of industries, including medical devices, industrial manufacturing, electronics, software, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, consumer goods and services, and transportation. The firm has helped clients develop and protect cutting-edge innovations in the areas of AI, autonomous vehicles, software, wireless/5G, and blockchain. The firm has been ranked by Chambers USA as one of the top firms in Illinois for intellectual property for 18 consecutive years. In recognizing Brinks Gilson & Lione with its Gold Band for Illinois, World Trademark Review 1000 described the firm as “the preferred protector for a host of A-list companies with famous and valuable brands.”
“We recognized the significant benefit to our clients and to our practice of joining forces with Crowell & Moring — a firm with shared values and a commitment to exceptional client service,” Siller said. “We look forward to collaborating with our new colleagues to offer clients strategic capabilities that align with their complex legal needs at a time of such rapid business change and innovation. With a collective team of more than 100 intellectual property and technology lawyers and scientific professionals, we are well-positioned to handle the widest array of clients’ IP protection, commercialization, litigation, trial, and counseling matters.”
This move builds on Crowell & Moring’s strategic growth in the United States and around the globe, and represents the firm’s first presence in the Midwest. Over the past three years, the firm has added close to 90 lateral partners and 21 senior counsel. In April, 24 lawyers from the storied Wall Street boutique, Kibbe & Orbe joined the firm’s New York, London, and Washington, D.C. offices, including 13 partners. In addition, last year, the firm established an office in Doha with the addition of an infrastructure development and controversy team, opened an office in Shanghai, and through C&M International, its global government relations, public policy, and public affairs affiliate, launched an office in Singapore.
As the result of joining forces with Brinks Gilson & Lione, Crowell & Moring will have more than 625 lawyers in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia. The firm will immediately add offices in Chicago and Indianapolis. In addition, Crowell & Moring has initiated the process with the Chinese government to open an office in Shenzhen, widely regarded as “China’s Silicon Valley,” with Brinks Gilson & Lione’s Shenzhen-based professionals. Brinks Gilson & Lione’s Shenzhen office was established in 2017.
“By joining forces, we create a powerful network of talent that will strengthen our combined technology practices,” Falvey said. “With doctorates in life sciences, computer science, and electrical engineering, Brinks lawyers know the science inside and out. They will be an exceptional resource for clients when it comes to the technical side of litigation, but they also bring exceptional people—lawyers and professionals—who are as committed to delivering superior client service and developing a diverse culture as we are.”
Consistent with the firm’s continued implementation of its strategic growth plan, Crowell & Moring will focus on adding talent in Chicago in areas that speak to client needs in this dynamic and opportunistic business environment, including corporate and transactional, technology, litigation, white collar and regulatory investigations, advertising and media, health care, and environmental.
“Both Crowell & Moring and Brinks Gilson & Lione have invested heavily in expanding their technology-oriented practices,” said Laura Lydigsen, a member of Brinks Gilson & Lione’s executive committee. “Clients will benefit from the strong synergies between Brinks’ technology depth and Crowell’s broad regulatory, litigation, and transactional experience in numerous technology sectors.”
