? Thailand: Rouse & Co International has opened a Bangkok office. At the beginning of October, the firm hired Fabrice Mattei from Bangkok firm Monkolnavin to head up the new office. The firm now has nearly 800 staff in offices in eight countries.
? UK/Sweden: Bird & Bird is to merge with Gedda & Ekdahl in Stockholm. Gedda & Ekdahl has 9 partners and 20 lawyers with an increasing focus on communications, IT, media and e-commerce. It will be known as Bird & Bird following the merger, which is to be completed on December 1. The merger will give Bird & Bird its fourth overseas office, alongside Brussels, Paris and Hong Kong. It will have 250 lawyers in total.
? US: Ed Poplawski has joined Sidley & Austin in Los Angeles as partner and head of the IP department. He was formerly a partner of Pretty Schroeder & Poplawski. Associates Jeffrey Finn, Denise McKenzie and Nisan Steinberg are also joining the firm. Poplawski will focus on patent, trade secret and copyright litigation and counselling.
? US Florida-based firm Holland & Knight is taking on five intellectual property partners to boost its practice in Washington DC. Three partners are joining with their associates from Boston-based firm Gadsby & Hannah with another two moving from in-house positions at Tiffany & Co and Motorola. Carol Matthews, Paul Kilmer and Thomas Brooke join from Gadsby.
? US: Mark Hogge has moved to Dorsey & Whitney in Washington DC from Pepper Hamilton. He will be a partner in the technology department.
? US: Heller Ehrman has hired partner Henry Beck to join the firm's national information technology practice, from Cowan Liebowitz & Latman, where he was head of the information technology and e-commerce practice. Beck specializes in intellectual property protection and licensing, the transfer of intellectual property assets and the formation of joint ventures and alliances for technology companies.
