Morgan Lewis & Bockius has hired a five-strong intellectual property team from Duane Morris to boost its IP litigation practice in Silicon Valley.

The team is led by Duane Morris’s former Silicon Valley managing partner Manita Rawat, alongside counsel Daniel Tarr, associate Tarian Wang, patent specialist Mona Batmani and senior paralegal Sherlin Yaghoubzadeh. The team specialises in tech-focused patent prosecution, as well as patent procurement, enforcement and licensing and patent litigation in diverse technical areas. Rawat’s technical background is in applied mathematics with a particular focus on computer science, aerospace engineering and statistical analysis. She regularly represents Fortune 100 and large tech companies.

Jami McKeon, chair of Morgan Lewis, said: “Global patent filings and other key indicators confirm what we have long known, which is that global innovation is increasing at a rapid and unyielding pace. For companies of any size in any sector, the skillfull guidance of a patent prosecution team of this calibre is integral to organisations protecting novel intellectual property in this competitive landscape.”

Rawat joins after just under a decade at Duane Morris where she was also a member of the firm’s governing partners board. She previously spent three years at Armstrong Teasdale and the same amount of time at Holland & Hart before that. She started her career at Alverson Taylor Mortensen and Sanders.

Louis Beardell, leader of the firm’s IP practice, said: “The informed counsel of our nationwide patent prosecution lawyers is critical for businesses looking to secure their intellectual property through patent portfolios in today’s constantly evolving technology marketplace.”

The team’s arrival adds to Morgan Lewis’s more than 200-strong global IP lawyer headcount.

Commenting on the move, Rawat said Morgan Lewis' "sincere efforts to promote inclusivity, in particular, for women lawyers and lawyers of colour, was a big draw for me. Leadership at the firm encourages a supportive and open forum, something I’m passionate about as I participate with the Asian Pacific and South Asian national and local bar associations, and other mentorships. In continuing my efforts, I look forward to new opportunities with our ML Women and ML Women in Tech initiatives and our various lawyer networks.”

California has been a hotbed of lateral hire activity this year. Earlier this month, Silicon Valley law firm Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian hired veteran in-house counsel Sangeetha Raghunathan as a corporate partner in San Francisco. That followed Norton Rose Fulbright’s hiring of San Francisco-based corporate lawyer Kaylee Yang from Baker Botts at the end of August. Also in August, Squire Patton Boggs hired trademark specialist Candice Kwok from Marks & Clerk to boost its IP practice in Palo Alto.