Law Firms
Alston & Bird Merges with L.A. Firm, Opens Office With Akin Gump Lawyers
Posted Jul 30, 2008, 09:24 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Rumors of a potential merger between Atlanta-based Alston & Bird and an 83-lawyer Los Angeles law firm have proven true.
The 800-lawyer Alston & Bird announced today (PDF) its acquisition of Weston Benshoof Rochefort Rubalcava & MacCuish. At the same time, Alston said it is opening a 12-lawyer office in the Silicon Valley staffed by intellectual property lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, including rainmaker Yitai Hu.
Akin Gump lost Hu after it refused his request to allow him to stay permanently in his native Taiwan. Previously he had split his time between offices in that country and in California.
Weston Benshoof has highly regarded land-use and environmental practices that will complement Alston’s energy-infrastructure and sustainability practices, according to a press release. Alston & Bird managing partner Richard Hays also praised Weston Benshoof’s “talented and deep litigation department” in the press release.
The Akin Gump lawyers joining the Silicon Valley office primarily represent international technology companies.