MoFo Merges With Durie Tangri

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.”