Nutter taps into boutique talent pool to reshape IP group.

Byline: Pat Murphy

Boston law firm Nutter recently attracted attention when it doubled the size of its intellectual property practice group by luring seven IP professionals, including three partners, from boutique Sunstein, Kann, Murphy & Timbers.

For years, boutiques like Sunstein have been a magnet for talented patent attorneys dissatisfied with their experience at larger, general practice firms. Last month's move to Nutter by Sunstein partners Steven G. Saunders, Kathleen M. Williams and Jeffrey T. Klayman, along with four colleagues, bucks that trend.

"These practitioners aligned perfectly with our strategic priorities, which were to grow IP in a very particular way," says Deborah J. Manus, Nutter's managing partner.

Manus points to the fact that the clients brought in by the new team have "full-service needs, not just IP needs."

Williams confirms that her move to Nutter was motivated to a large degree on her clients' increasing need for the services of a general practice firm as their businesses grow.

"I thought it would be helpful both to them and to me if I were at a bigger platform," Williams says.

Saunders says he was motivated to move to Nutter for similar reasons.

"My client base includes a lot of startup companies and growing companies. Nutter is custom-made for those clients," Saunders says. "On the other hand, it also has the critical mass and size to handle my larger clients."

Williams says she's heard the common view expressed by colleagues that, in many instances, large firms don't understand the particular support needs of an IP practice. She says she's not worried about that at Nutter.

"We came to an established IP practice here," Williams says.

Bruce D. Sunstein founded Sunstein Kann in Boston nearly 39 years ago and is philosophical about the recent departures. Sunstein says the firm regularly receives calls to join bigger, general practice firms. He sees the recent moves as demonstrating the inevitability that every once in a while there will be individual attorneys at Sunstein who won't be able to resist those calls.

"It's happened before, and it may happen again, but we're still here as an independent IP boutique," he says.

Meanwhile, Sunstein doesn't see a trend in larger firms poaching talent...

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