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Dallas Business Journal:

Two Dallas-based law firms are expanding their offices to California in moves designed to increase the firms’ market share in the Golden State.

McKool Smith PC, which specializes in intellectual property and commercial litigation, last month completed its acquisition of 35-lawyer Los Angeles litigation and bankruptcy boutique Hennigan Dorman, giving the firm about 165 lawyers in seven offices nationwide.

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Hennigan Dorman is an ideal cultural and economic fit with McKool Smith because both firms have similar profits per partner and revenue streams, said Mike McKool, the firm’s co-founder and chairman. The firm will keep the McKool Smith name, but operate as McKool Smith Hennigan in California. In addition to Dallas and L.A., the firm has offices in Houston, Austin and Marshall, Texas; New York City and Washington, D.C.

McKool Smith Founder Mike McKool in Dallas Business Journal article

“We needed to be coast-to-coast,” McKool said. “We’re on the east coast in New York and Washington, and we needed to expand our geographic reach. Los Angeles just seemed to fit the bill.”

The courts in both Dallas and Los Angeles have entered pilot programs that make them attractive venues for the filing of patent cases, which make up a sizable chunk of McKool Smith’s work, McKool said.

The firm is interested in establishing an office in Northern California, and believes the move into Los Angeles will make it easier to enter that market, he said.

McKool Smith and Hennigan Dorman share a record of victories in high-stakes disputes. In the first six months of 2011, McKool Smith secured more than $1 billion in courtroom verdicts, judgments and settlements, including a $345 million verdict for Versata Software Inc. in a patent infringement trial against SAP America Inc. Hennigan Dorman has recovered more than $850 million from Wall Street for its client, Orange County, Calif., in the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.

Los Angeles has been a hotbed this year for law firm mergers, with at least five instances in which outside firms have acquired smaller firms, according to data from legal consultancy Altman Weil. Nationwide, 43 law firms merged this year from January through September is 43 — up 79 percent compared to the same nine-month period in 2010, according to Altman Weil MergerLine.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/print-edition/2011/11/18/two-dallas-law-firms-set-their-sights.html

© 2011 American City Business Journals, Inc.