Barclay Damon announces the addition of 10 lawyers from Burns & Levinson effective as of October 7. The group consists of a six-lawyer intellectual property team led by former B&L IP chair Deb Peckham that includes partners Kate Noll and Alex Smolenski, of counsel Jerry Cohen, and associates Dan McGrath and Kat Delos Reyes, along with several support staff. It also includes four lawyers focused on real estate, finance, corporate, and labor and employment, including B&L’s former managing partner, Paul Mastrocola, and partners Leslie Muldowney, Andy Henderson, and Tina Murray.
The deal will bring Barclay Damon’s Boston office headcount to 23 lawyers and its major markets offices headcount from eight lawyers five years ago to just under 90 lawyers today in New York City, Boston, New Haven, and Washington DC.
Management committee member and managing director of major markets Lizz Acee said, “We continue building momentum in each of our markets with a proven reputation for finding talent, striking deals that are fair to lateral partners and the firm, and successfully integrating and retaining talent at a rate that far surpasses industry statistics.”
The B&L addition marks the third major IP group to join Barclay Damon in 2024, underscoring the firm’s continued strategic investment in its IP practice and expansion of services to tech-based clients. Last month, the firm added a three-member IP team from a Washington DC–based boutique IP law firm led by partner Cook Alciati, preceded in April 2024 with partner Tony Gangemi moving his five-person IP team to Barclay Damon’s New Haven office from Murtha Cullina.
Denis Sullivan, Barclay Damon’s Intellectual Property Practice Group leader, said, “Our group was strong before 2024, and our growth this year has added to the broad range of hard-science disciplines that we can offer and has improved the depth and strength of our overall IP bench.”
The firm’s expanded IP group now boasts 32 lawyers, one patent agent, and eight paralegals and docket administrators supporting a practice doing work throughout the United States and abroad in the areas of patent and trademark litigation and prosecution, including contested patent and trademark office proceedings, commercial licensing and transactional due diligence, and copyright litigation and procurement.
“Our team could not be more excited to join a firm whose growing platform and successes have been so inspiring to watch in Boston and beyond,” Peckham said. “Barclay Damon’s continued focus on increasing their already-formidable IP team made the choice to join the firm the obvious path to follow. And our clients will benefit from the full range of legal services from outstanding providers with commitments to client service that equal ours.”
For over two decades, Barclay Damon has been successfully pursuing a disciplined expansion strategy throughout its platform of offices in major and smaller markets. The firm’s five-year deal history includes a combination with the 10-attorney business, construction, power and energy, real estate, and commercial litigation firm Shapiro, Lifschitz & Schram; the addition of 20 lawyers from LeClairRyan; the addition of seven wealth management planning and elder law attorneys from Lacy Katzen LLP; a combination with the 14-attorney bankruptcy firm Menter, Rudin & Trivelpiece, PC; and the addition of the 11-attorney energy-environmental firm Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, PC.
Over a 30 year period, the firm’s lateral recruitment and integration program has increased the firm from 50 attorneys in three offices to nearly 300 attorneys in nine offices.