Stradling lures away Oppenheimer lawyers

Newport Beach's Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth has boosted its life science practice by luring a team of intellectual property lawyers from the Newport Beach office of Minneapolis-based Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly LLP.

"We've been looking to expand our IP services in our life science practice and kept coming back to Oppenheimer's group," said Larry Cohn, Stradling's life science group chair.

Bruce Canter, now a Stradling partner and intellectual property practice chair, is among the new lawyers.

Earlier this year, Oppenheimer closed its Los Angeles office and moved lawyers to Newport Beach, making it the firm's Southland hub.

Canter said his group began to "seriously engage" Stradling in April. He said Oppenheimer's restructuring left his practice group feeling isolated.

Most Oppenheimer clients from Canter's group are set to go to Stradling. They include: Irvine's Edwards Lifesciences Corp.; Medtronic AVE, a unit of Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc.; Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter International Inc.; and Santa Ana's Advanced Medical Optics Inc.

Advanced Medical, which spun off from Allergan Inc. last year, already is a Stradling corporate client. Canter's group will bring the company's intellectual property work.

Five attorneys moved from Oppenheimer to Stradling. Along with Canter, they include: Louis Cullman-now a Stradling partner-and attorneys William Anderson, Monique Heynink and Brian Swienton. Stradling now counts 17 lawyers in its life science practice.