AmLaw 100 firm Fox Rothschild has hired a group of intellectual property lawyers from Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo to open an office in Boston. 

Led by partner Pete Corless, the Mintz Levin team also includes counsel Nicholas Zachariades, associate Joohee Lee as well as patent agent Michael Mattoni. The Boston office is the Philadelphia-headquartered firm’s 29th nationwide, while the hires bring Fox Rothschild’s total lawyer headcount above 950. 

Current Fox Rothschild employment partner Kirsten White, who has worked remotely in Massachusetts since she joined the firm from Schwarts Hannum in 2021, will also be resident in the Boston office, the firm said in a statement. 

Mark Silow, chair of Fox Rothschild, characterised the office launch as a “game-changing addition” to its 115-strong IP practice. The firm was the most active US law firm in representing plaintiffs in copyright cases filed between 2018 and 2020, according to Lex Machina’s 2021 Copyright and Trademark Litigation report, working on a total of 1,993 cases during the two-year period. 

“We have long sought to open a location in the Boston area, and we are delighted to be establishing roots in New England with this outstanding team of attorneys and staff,” he added. 

Corless spent seven years at Mintz Levin, having joined in 2014 from Edwards Wildman Palmer where he had served as a patent attorney for more than two decades, according to his Linkedin profile. He specialises in patent procurement, prosecution and portfolio management as well as investor diligences and validity assessments across the life sciences industry. 

Zachariades and Lee, meanwhile, hold PhDs in cellular immunology and chemistry respectively. Like Corless, the duo focus on handling patent matters for public and private life sciences firms and academic institutions as well as companies operating across the manufacturing, chemical and pharmaceutical and medtech sectors. 

“We are excited to launch Fox’s Boston office and to be part of the firm’s preeminent national intellectual property team,” Corless said. 

A spokesperson for Mintz did not immediately respond to request for comment on the departures. 

Fox Rothschild is just one of a handful of law firms to target Boston’s booming life sciences market as of late, following Allen & Overy’s launch there in February and K&L Gates’ addition of a 12-strong team to its Boston office from  Lando & Anastasi in March. 

Withers also gained a presence in Boston in April last year when it hired a trio of patent partners from Burns & Levinson. And in July, US firm Barnes & Thornburg hired a quartet of IP lawyers from Nutter McClennen & Fish to launch in Boston, the firm’s 20th office nationwide.

Elsewhere, law firms have been moving into Utah to take advantage of its status as a tech and life sciences hub, which has earned it the nickname ‘Silicon Slopes’. Wilson Sonsini hired Utah Supreme Court justice Deno Himonas to open in Salt Lake City in November, while Kirkland & Ellis set up an on-the-ground presence there in September in a bid to establish stronger ties with Utah schools like Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.

Foley & Lardner also planted its flag in Salt Lake City last year, hiring a quartet of IP litigation specialists from Maschoff Brennan in a move intended to strengthen its offering in the tech and life sciences sectors in October.