About K&L Gates LLP

K&L Gates LLP comprises 1,800 lawyers who practice in 33 offices located on three continents:  Anchorage, Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Fort Worth, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, Taipei and Washington, D.C.  K&L Gates represents capital markets participants and leading global corporations, growth and middle-market companies, and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions and philanthropic organizations.  Our practice is robustly a full market practice — at once regional, national and international in scope — and it is cutting edge, complex, and dynamic.

Our Practice

K&L Gates practices law on an integrated basis.   In 2008, 458 of our 500 largest clients used lawyers in two or more of our offices, and 9 of our 20 largest clients used lawyers in 10 or more of our offices.  The average number of offices engaged on projects by the firm’s 20 largest clients was 9.4.  For our 100 largest clients, which represent 33% of total firm revenue, the average number of offices engaged was 6.9. 

Our delivery of legal services is supported at both the individual office level and through six firmwide practice areas: Corporate and Transactional; Litigation and Dispute Resolution; Financial Services; Real Estate; Regulatory and Policy; and Intellectual Property. Within each of these practice areas are subject matter and industry-based practice groups. 

Our multi-office corporate and transactional practice is one of the most substantial in the profession.   We maintain a balance between company side and capital markets clients, in virtually every industry segment.  We perform corporate engagements for large multinational operating companies, ambitious middle market and emerging growth companies, and capital markets participants including public and private investment organizations, investment banks, commercial lenders and other financial institutions. Our lawyers in the United States , Europe and Asia are highly experienced in cross-border M&A, securities and financing transactions, as well as corporate counseling in general.  We adopt a multidisciplinary approach in counseling our clients and draw upon our firm's unparalleled resources, including creation of firm wide task forces to address important industry and topical client needs such as the global financial crisis, the federal stimulus plan, infrastructure and life sciences. 

We are recognized as a leader in the private equity, hedge fund, venture capital, AIM listing, ESOPs and consumer mortgage finance areas, with transactions from start-ups to $10 billion in size.   Our sophisticated global finance practice also focuses on structured finance, securitizations, derivatives, mezzanine lending, acquisition finance, Shariah compliant finance, high-yield debt, real estate finance, and municipal finance.  Over the last few years, we have completed hundreds of M&A transactions and public and private debt and equity offerings.  Our practices continue to grow in market share and recognition, as evidenced by the following:  Bloomberg Q1 2009 Americas Legal Advisor League Tables ranked us as #2 in the U.S. Equity Offerings Issuer Advisers when based on volume and #4 when based on deal count in this same category, and we are tied at #2 in U.S. Equity Offerings Issuer Advisers (IPO) category; Thomson Reuters Legal M&A Advisors ranked us as tied for #11 in US Targeted Completed transactions during 2008; American Lawyer’s 2009 Corporate Scorecard ranked us #4 for REIT Equities, Issuers Counsel; PrivateRaise 2008 Top 25 PIPE Issuer Law Firms ranked us #7; and Private Equity Analyst recently ranked K&L Gates as one of the “most active law firms” for both private equity/venture capital and fund formation transactions.   

Our real estate practice provides an integrated portfolio of legal services around the world.   The real estate team delivers a streamlined approach to handling US national, international and pan-European transactions from any of the firm’s offices.  The firm has played a significant role in some of the largest and most complex real estate deals of recent times.  The real estate group has a wealth of transactional and advisory experience and also delivers strategic and practical advice on corporate and joint venture aspects, real estate investment and fund matters, the financing of transactions, tax structures, construction issues (contentious and non-contentious), planning and environmental issues and dispute resolution.  The real estate finance group also has a widely acknowledged and excellent reputation for its advice to banks and borrowers on all aspects of mainstream lending and commercial real estate financing. 

Our litigation engagements ― including, among other substantive areas, insurance coverage, intellectual property, real estate, white-collar criminal, construction, professional liability, environmental, toxic tort, products liability, franchise, tax, bankruptcy and insolvency, antitrust and competition, employment, benefits, government contracts, constitutional and election law, and securities – are among the largest and most attractive enjoyed by any law firm.   Our litigation practice includes international arbitrations, civil and criminal trials, class actions and appellate work.  We have been rated a leading practice in the representation of corporate policyholders in the insurance coverage area and as a leading litigation firm for the financial services sector, and our litigation engagements have helped to shape intellectual property law in the fast-moving technology sector.  Our acclaimed e-Discovery Analysis and Technology (“e-DAT”) group continues to pave the way nationally and internationally in the exploding field of e-discovery.

The firm’s regulatory and policy practice cuts across the many disciplines that require highly specialized knowledge and experience to address governmental regulation of the private markets.   Our premier regulatory practice is in the diversified financial services area.  We represent a large majority of the major financial institutions and securities firms in a variety of disciplines, and our investment management and mortgage banking practices are perennial leaders.  Our position in the financial services sector was acknowledged by the appointment of Washington, D.C. partner, Mike Missal, as Examiner in the high-profile New Century Financial bankruptcy proceeding.  The regulatory practice covers a wide variety of areas including antitrust, energy, telecommunications, environmental, securities enforcement, food and drug, education, healthcare, government contracts, white collar and international trade.  Many of our practice leaders as well as more junior lawyers have governmental experience that enhances their ability to serve K&L Gates clients in regulatory fields, while others have held prominent positions in regulated industries.  At the same time, our public policy practice was ranked recently as among the largest and most influential in Washington and affords our clients the opportunity to shape regulatory and legislative initiatives affecting their businesses.

Our intellectual property practice is one of the strongest in the profession.   IP Law and Business describes our practice as “cutting edge” and ranks us as one of the “go-to-firms for the world’s most forward-thinking companies.”  With over 200 attorneys worldwide and over 100 USPTO registered professionals in our practice, we provide a broad range of technology expertise and practical experience.  Our experienced lawyers practice in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, physics, math, biology, pharmacology and immunology.  With this technological depth, we are one of the top filers of patent and trademark applications in the United States .  We also provide sophisticated counseling about and assistance with the acquisition and global management of patent, trademark and copyright portfolios.  Our intellectual property litigation teams have handled cases in 47 of the United States and the District of Columbia .  We have extensive experience in the leading IP venues, including the Federal Circuit, the International Trade Commission, the Eastern District of Texas, the District of Delaware, and the Northern District of California.  Moreover, we augment our litigation prowess with a sophisticated inter partes and ex partes practice in the USPTO.  We have won our cases by jury verdict and by summary judgment where reasonable settlements were not achievable.  Our experience includes representing multiple clients against a common plaintiff as well as representing clients in multiple fora simultaneously against a common plaintiff. 

The firm continuously evaluates the direction of its practices and allocates resources so that its capabilities reach to the forefront of emerging disciplines.   In recent years the firm has recruited laterally in such disparate fields as public policy, derivatives and structured finance, international trade, investment management and hedge funds, corporate transactional, licensing, private equity, tax, intellectual property, environmental, construction, securities enforcement, antitrust, toxic tort litigation, benefits and share schemes, real estate finance, bankruptcy, telecommunications, food and drug, FERC, healthcare and life sciences, and employment to address the evolving needs of our clientele.  We also strive to maintain a creative, interdisciplinary approach to the practice, as evidenced by the extraordinary convergence of disciplines that permitted our K&L Gates colleague, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, to act as the court-appointed Examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy proceeding — the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history — and the firm itself to act as his counsel.

Our lawyers practice at the peak of our profession.   They serve as leaders of various professional organizations and render public service through pro bono representations and service to their communities.  Our Boston partner, Mike Greco, served as President of the American Bar Association in 2005-06, while our former Seattle partner, Bill Neukom, served as the 2007-08 President of the American Bar Association.  K&L Gates lawyers participate vigorously in the intellectual debate that is so fundamental to the advanced practice of law, routinely address professional colloquia, and author leading treatises and articles in their fields.

Our Approach to the Markets 

We believe that a deep appreciation for our clients’ concerns, challenges and business objectives is the foundation for successful business development.  To that end, we have created a substantive and sophisticated brand and positioning platform that aligns our interests with those of our clients.  This brand communicates our unified commitment to providing the highest level of client service and quality legal counsel in all our offices, and is strengthened by continuous and active measures to support, enhance and bolster the valued relationships K&L Gates maintains with clients.  The BTI Consulting Group reinforced the firm’s commitment to clients by naming K&L Gates one of the top 30 law firms in client service as compared with more than 500 other leading firms.  BTI’s 2008 Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms reported the results of more than 250 independent, individual interviews with corporate counsel at Fortune 1000 companies and other large organizations.

We support our lawyers with an array of services aimed at increasing the value we provide our clients.  Our firmwide marketing and business development team, led by our Chief Marketing Officer, works with our practices and offices to develop and implement integrated programs and targeted activities, such as client feedback programs and internal client service teams that help ensure the retention of existing clients and enable the steady growth of new business.  The firm has employed innovative measures in the past such as periodic market research surveys of senior in-house counsel, and we constantly look for ways to provide useful and valuable resources to clients and prospective clients.  Marketing The Law Firm, a Law Journal Newsletter, has formally recognized our firm’s distinct marketing efforts, listing K&L Gates as the #2 law firm in its 2008 MLF 50, an annual ranking of leading law firms for marketing and communications.  The current MLF 50 ranking marks the fourth consecutive year that K&L Gates has been included among the top 20 law firms.