Law firms target growth in high-tech marketplace

BOULDER — First high-tech, Silicon Valley-based law firm Cooley Godward opened an office here.

Then well known law firms such as Chrisman Bynum and Johnson and Holme Roberts and Owen began adding to their high-tech work, including mergers and initial public offerings. This year, Denver firms Davis, Graham and Stubbs and Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison opened offices in the area.

With the increasing competition, law firms are jockeying for advantage. And that means gearing their services toward Boulder County’s high-tech marketplace. Some are narrowing their focus, others are trumpeting their own horns, celebrating more years of service and anniversaries.

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The focus for Holme Roberts and Owen is a Silicon Valley-model niche, where a high-tech company grows quickly, positioning itself for a public offering. The firm has increased its focus on Boulder County’s high technology and high-growth market, according to Chris Ozeroff, corporate council specializing in emerging-growth companies and venture capital funding.

Three years ago, the Boulder office’s water and natural resources practice split off from the main office, allowing a “dramatic” focus on emerging markets, Ozeroff said. Now workers here put more office resources toward high-tech firms and their specific needs. The Boulder office for the 100-year-old, Denver-based firm has been in operation 14 years.

Today “there are seven attorneys here that spend most of their time on this work,” Ozeroff said. “And it’s correct that the presence of someone like me specializing in this market is new. We’re offering, for example, expertise in venture-capital financing, public securities, patents, licensing and intellectual property litigation. We’re more specialized than five years ago.”

The aggressive growth plans of many Boulder County businesses create the need for sophisticated legal protection to help ensure the road to success, Ozerhoff said.

“We’ve seen increasing growth in the base of high-technology companies in Boulder County. Bigger deals are being done,” Ozeroff said. “The companies we see have significant venture backing. Perhaps more than before, Boulder-area companies are willing to pay for top-quality consultants, including lawyers, for things such as protection of their key intellectual property.”

Cooley Godward’s arrival in the Boulder-area market six years ago is as good of an indicator as any of the market for legal services for high-tech companies. The firm attracts clients though both direct and indirect relationships, according to Jim Linfield, managing partner for the Boulder and Denver offices of Cooley Godward.

Relationship referrals come from venture capital funds, banking firms and all major national investment banking firms. Local business relationships help. Linfield has worked in the area for 35 years. Cooley Godward’s Boulder office includes 20 attorneys. Eight are in Denver.

“The legal market here is fairly competitive, but we have talents and resources that are unique in this market. We’re the only Silicon Valley firm with a full-service practice here,” Linfield said.

Since growing companies need money and technology, Cooley Godward offers help in financing transactions, employment law and benefit law and help developing and protecting intellectual property.

David Lee, a principal of Lee, Fishman and Isaac, said the technological background of those who make up the law firm makes all the difference. Top players at Lee, Fishman and Isaac have engineering backgrounds, for example.

“It’s critical to walk the walk and talk’ when you come to the table,” Lee said. “It’s rare to find (attorneys) in this field that don’t have at least one degree.” He said software patents can be particularly hard to write. “It’s a very esoteric field, you have to had been there and done it.” It helps if your law firm is experienced or somewhere there has a background in software development, he added.

A “boutique” specializing in intellectual property, protection, licensing and litigation, Lee, Fishman and Isaac brings several experts to the table. For six years, John Isaac saw the business from the inside as the chief patent counsel for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dan Fishman worked as Kentek Information Systems software development director in Boulder for eight years, and as a systems engineer at Hewlett Packard. Lee is a litigator with 20 years of patent litigation and is the chair of the patent trademark and copyright section of the Colorado Bar Association.

On the other side of the coin is Dave Cook, senior partner of Chrisman Bynum and Johnson. He describes the practice as the “largest, full-service, Boulder-based firm.” A more personal approach is Chrisman Bynum and Johnson’s distinguishing factor.

“As a whole, we deal with clients from the beginning. We’re happy to do the merger, but we are also interested in being with a company at the early stage, sometimes before they are even a company.”

Cook said Chrisman Bynum and Johnson offers packaged, discounted legal services to especially promising new clients. Expertise is important, and Chrisman Bynum and Johnson recently has hired a number of new lawyers from big companies across the county. Cook said when he began with Chrisman Bynum and Johnson, the company saw growth of technology in the county and wanted to lure businesses that were going to the law firms in Denver.

Like Lee, Fishman and Isaac, Chrisman Bynum and Johnson offers clients legal assistance that caters to high-tech interests. Five patent lawyers and 10 people in intellectual property litigation focus on the high-tech side, as well as a number of those working in traditional businesses services and mergers and acquisitions.

Chris Chrisbens, litigation partner for Chrisman Bynum and Johnson, said patents and copyright services are especially important.

Companies will “apply for a trademark, will get someone who opposed the trademark, and we will have them team up with both the intellectual property attorney and an intellectual property litigator,” Chrisbens said. “We have three to five patent infringement cases going right now.”

The 25-year-old firm began with three lawyers and may soon be adding to its services. Sources say Lee, Fishman and Isaac plan to join forces and become partners with Chrisman Bynum and Johnson in the upcoming year.