Four partners at litigation boutique Keker & Van Nest are setting out to found their own firm, Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent.
Daralyn Durie, Ragesh Tangri, Clement Roberts and Ryan Kent are founding the firm along with Stanford patent law professor Mark Lemley, who was of counsel at Keker.
The new firm, which opened yesterday, is handling matters for marquee clients including Google, Genentech, Comcast and Ticketmaster.
In 2006, Durie won a huge patent infringement trial for Comcast. More recently, she represented Google in its settlement with authors and publishers in a copyright dispute over putting books online.
Durie, Tangri and Lemley first talked about starting their own firm when they were law students at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law in the early ’90s.
The new firm’s rates will be up to 20% less than what they were charging at Keker, and they’ll also be more open to alternative fee arrangements.
The firm has just one associate right now. Durie says the firm could grow to eight to 10 lawyers, but not much more. The firm won’t be highly leveraged and instead will look to take advantage of the efficiency of experienced partners, she said.