Ballard Spahr acquires firm

In an expansion move, the Center City law firm of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll L.L.P. is set to announce its acquisition of an Atlanta-based intellectual property and patent firm.

Ballard partners, voting in Center City and from offices around the country, approved the merger with Needle & Rosenberg unanimously last week. The acquisition of the 27-lawyer firm will bring the number of lawyers at Ballard Spahr to around 550 at 12 offices nationwide, including the new office in Atlanta.

"A lot of large law firms are building this capacity," said Arthur Makadon, chairman of Ballard Spahr. "We have hundreds and hundreds of big clients and we have never been in a position to offer them patent expertise. We can now offer them our own expertise."

Needle & Rosenberg founder William Needle said his firm had been approached periodically by other law firms looking for a merger candidate, but that Ballard offered the best chance for a workable combination.

"It was a good fit; what we found in Ballard, we didn't find that much in other places," Needle said.

Ballard has been on an expansion drive for several years, most recently with the opening of an office in Phoenix that now has 29 lawyers and a smaller office in Los Angeles. The challenge for midsize to large firms like Ballard is to grow nationally as their clients demand ever more geographic reach and a wider array of legal services.

At the same time, intellectual property firms such as Needle & Rosenberg, which for years basked largely unchallenged in a specialized market niche, now are facing ever greater competition from bigger firms. Those bigger firms increasingly offer their own intellectual property practices, along with many services such as general litigation and transactional law that boutique firms typically do not provide.

"Clients want everything combined in one firm," Makadon said.

The merger talks began in March, when the legal consulting firm of Hildebrandt International contacted Needle & Rosenberg about the possibility of joining Ballard. Hildebrandt had been working with Ballard on a strategic plan and was well familiar with Ballard's goal of acquiring an intellectual property firm.

Needle said the talks proceeded quickly once it became clear that the lawyers at both firms got along well. Ballard partners assured Needle and his colleagues that they would be given wide flexibility in running their practice.

"They get it," Needle said.

Typically, intellectual property firms advise clients on ways to protect their inventions and ideas - their so-called intellectual property - from being poached by competitors. They help arrange legal protections such as patents or trademarks and offer services to a wide range of industries, from software to retailers to pharmaceutical companies and others.

For the time being, the Atlanta firm will keep its name, but be referred to as the Needle & Rosenberg intellectual property practice of Ballard Spahr. But it will eventually appear only under the Ballard Spahr heading.

The firm brings a deep pool of talent to Ballard.

In addition to its 27 lawyers, Needle & Rosenberg has six nonlawyer employees who bring scientific expertise and knowledge about negotiating the patent process, Needle said. One of its lawyers also has a medical degree.

The firm represents clients in the traditional pharmaceutical industry, nanotechnology, chemicals, computer technology and software, among others.

Among William Needle's more prominent cases was his representation of the creators of the Cabbage Patch doll. He successfully challenged the makers of competing products for infringing on their copyright and trademark protections.