Cooley Expands in DC with Dow Lohnes Merger

Washington, DC – October 15, 2013 – Cooley LLP announced today that it is combining with Dow Lohnes PLLC’s Washington, DC office. Through the transaction, Cooley will be adding 54 attorneys and many other non-lawyer professionals and industry specialists to its DC office. The Dow Lohnes group is organized around three broad industry sectors: communications, higher education and media. The deal will catapult Cooley into a Top-30 Washington, DC law firm by size, boasting comprehensive “Inside the Beltway” regulatory experience. The clients of both firms will be significantly advantaged by the deepening of the core capabilities across Cooley’s domestic and international offices.

“Cooley’s proven track record of advising market-defining businesses will be further enhanced by Dow Lohnes’s well-known regulatory strengths and extensive industry expertise,” said Joseph Conroy, chief executive officer of Cooley. “This union delivers to our clients the solutions needed to navigate the increasingly pervasive and complex regulatory landscape. Around DC there was intense competition for this outstanding group of professionals, who have carefully positioned themselves with a view to joining a broader platform. They share a common vision of how our clients’ industries are changing, and we are thrilled to partner with them and shape a stronger future together.”

“Cooley is the go-to firm for innovative, high-growth companies,” said John Byrnes, managing partner of Dow Lohnes. “Combined with our regulatory experience across communications, higher education and media, stretching back decades, we can now offer our clients a far broader and deeper range of skill sets in litigation, transactional and IP work. At Dow Lohnes we have always prided ourselves on evolving with our clients, and this opportunity is the next step in our evolution. In Cooley we have found the perfect partner – a firm with fantastic lawyers who can serve the full spectrum of our clients’ most important legal needs, and a cherished culture of teamwork and transparency. We could not be more excited about our common future.”

“Cooley’s DC office was founded in 2005 to extend our long-standing leadership at the intersection of law and innovation,” said Ryan Naftulin, partner-in-charge of Cooley’s Washington, DC office. “Following our substantial growth in antitrust, securities enforcement, IP, and health care, the Dow Lohnes addition furthers our commitment to serving clients with parallel regulatory expertise in key areas like communications, higher education and media, creating a bench unmatched by any other firm in our space.”

Cooley’s DC office has grown significantly, increasing headcount by 50 percent over the two years prior to this merger – to around 80 attorneys. In January 2013 it moved to new DC headquarters in the Warner Building at 1299 Pennsylvania Avenue. Cooley's DC capabilities are further bolstered by nearly 70 attorneys in its nearby Reston, Va. office. The two offices combine to serve leading Mid-Atlantic businesses and innovators as well as a national and global client base, including some of the world’s most dynamic companies.

The merger will become effective on January 1, 2014.

About Cooley LLP

Cooley’s attorneys solve legal issues for entrepreneurs, investors and established companies. Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP matters and bet-the-company litigation, often where innovation meets the law.

Cooley has more than 700 lawyers across eleven offices in the United States and China. 

About Dow Lohnes PLLC

Since 1918, Dow Lohnes, from its base in Washington, DC, has provided legal services focused on a core set of regulated industries. While the composition of those industries has changed over time, what has not changed is the firm’s dedication and focus on providing innovative and cutting edge legal services to a national clientele through premier practices in the communications, higher education, media and other regulated industries.