Foley creates four-partner team in Salt Lake City office

Foley creates four-partner team in Salt Lake City office

Despite the launch of Foley's office in Silicon Slopes, national law firms are still interested in the location

Six new litigators have been brought on board by Foley & Lardner, including four partners from Stoel Rives to bolster the firm's Salt Lake City office.

Foley is pleased to announce that partners Ken Black, Monica Call, David Jordan and David Mortensen, as well as senior counsel Jordan Bledsoe and Wesley Harward, have joined the firm's business litigation team from Stoel Rives, a Top 200 Am Law 200 law firm based in Portland, Oregon.

Salt Lake City Foley's office opened in October 2021 with the appointment of four IP litigators, including David Wright from the local law firm Maschoff Brennan. Boosting its offerings in the tech and life sciences sectors was a stated goal when the firm opened its 25th office worldwide.

Consequently, the team from Stoel Rives will be able to provide its region with a full-service offering for the health care and life sciences, energy manufacturing and ground-breaking technology sectors, according to Foley.

Among the services provided by the team are complex business litigation, advising on a variety of areas like intellectual property, securities, commercial contracts, business tort, antitrust and professional liability. Besides representing business and individual clients in civil matters like mining and environmental cases, they specialize in litigation involving IP rights, such as patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and trade dress.

According to Jay Rothman, Foley's chairman and CEO, the addition of such a talented team of attorneys will enhance its growing Salt Lake City office. "This team brings a sophisticated approach to complex business litigation in the Salt Lake City area and across the country and we are excited about the quality service we will provide to our clients."

There are a number of experienced Stoel Rives lawyers in the team. Collectively they have spent more than 80 years at their former company.

A primary focus of Ken Black's practice is complex business litigation, including intellectual property, securities and professional liability matters. Likewise, Monica Call has been with Stoel Rives for 16 years from Hunton & Williams and represents both government clients and corporate clients in government investigations. Among her other litigation work, she has contested license agreements, trademarks and patents.

David Jordan was the US Attorney for the District of Utah before joining Stoel Rives in 1993 and a senior partner at the firm when he joined Foley in 1997; he represents clients in California antitrust matters, intellectual property matters, mining matters, securities matters and government investigations.

Among David Mortensen's areas of practice are complex business litigation, intellectual property, breach of contract, business torts, fraud, negligence and defamation. He served as a judicial clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for 22 years before joining Stoel Rives.

A number of prominent US companies have also considered Salt Lake City in the recent past. As part of its ongoing strategy to recruit top legal talent, Kirkland & Ellis opened an office in Utah in September 2021. To facilitate, it can establish stronger ties with Utah schools like Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School and the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law.

In November, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced that Utah Supreme Court Justice Deco Himonas would open an office to support Utah's emerging life sciences and technology sectors.