Crowell & Moring and Brinks Gilson & Lione Announce Merger
Crowell & Moring has announced a merger with Brinks Gilson & Lione, a Chicago-based law firm. The merger will be effective from July 2021. A team of 61 lawyers will be joining Crowell & Moring including 27 partners, 11 senior counsel, and 23 associates and counsel. This team shares more than 60 technical degrees and deep technical knowledge that will help the firm’s trial, litigation, and arbitration practices across the United States and international courts. The firm will add offices in Chicago and Indianapolis.
After the merger, Crowell & Moring will have over 625 lawyers across the United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and North Africa. The firm is also working towards opening an office with Brinks Gilson & Lione in Shenzhen in China. Brinks Gilson & Lione President, Gustavo Siller will co-chair the Technology and Intellectual Property department along with Cheryl A. Falvey, one of the main architects of Crowell & Moring’s digital transformation and technology practice. Falvey has also served as the former General Counsel of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Brinks Gilson & Lione has helped clients in diverse challenges in intellectual property matters and its clientele ranges from large multinational corporations to emerging and upcoming innovative companies. It also has vast intellectual property experience in international jurisdictions. The firm serves clients from various industries including software, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer goods and services, industrial manufacturing, and transportation. It has worked with clients who have developed the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and 5G. The firm has received acclaim and recognition from several legal organizations and publications including Chambers USA and World Trademark Review 1000.
Crowell & Moring’s global litigation, regulatory, public policy, and transactional team counsels a diverse client base including Fortune 500 companies and startups. The firm has provided counsel to these clients on an array of issues arising at the intersection of business and technology and digital transformation. As a result of this merger, Crowell & Moring will become one of the most active technology protection firms based on its patent activity. The merger will further strengthen the firm’s trial, litigation, and arbitration practices before the US Patent and Trademark Offices, International Trade Commission and other federal, state, and international courts. In April 2021, 24 lawyers including 13 partners joined the firm from Kibbe & Orbe.
Commenting on the merger, Philip T. Inglima, Chair of Crowell & Moring, said, “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 businesses that are affected – and increasingly transformed – by technology and innovation. 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.”
“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. 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.”, said Siller.