World Trademark Review, like IAM a part of The IP Meda Group, is reporting on a flurry of rumours doing the rounds in London that Clifford Chance could be about to downgrade its IP operation - and perhaps even abandon it altogether. The firm has ruled out the latter, but it does not seem to be denying that big chages could be on the way:

"We're not pulling out of intellectual property wholesale," the firm said in a statement. "As part of our partnership review we have been looking at practice groups across the firm, including intellectual property. It's too early to say what the impact of the review will be."

However, speculation has been spreading in London that the IP department is likely to be hit particularly hard as Clifford Chance continues to restructure following a drop in turnover announced this week. WTR has heard from a number of independent sources that partners in the firm's IP practice are being asked to leave. However, IP lawyers at Clifford Chance contacted by WTR have refused to comment and have referred all queries to the firm's public relations operation. 

It's not exactly a wholehearted commitment to the maintenance of a strong intellectual property department is it? And when you start to hear the same thing from a number of independent sources, there is usually at least some truth to what you are being told.

Given the fact that Clifford Chance is going through a very rocky time, it would be no surprise if the firm were to reconsider its commitment to intellectual property. To those practising in the firm's major fee-earning areas, IP may look a bit of a luxury in a downturn - especially if there is no steady stream of lucrative patent litigation work on offer. The other side of the equation, however, is that if you call yourself a full service firm, you need to be able to offer your client base a full set of services. And if you aspire to be one of the best full service law firms in the world, you have to make sure that you have the ability to offer extensive and top class legal advice in all mainstream practice areas. After all, it's not as if IP is an obscure specialisation, is it? So, any cutbacks Clifford Chance does make in IP will have to be very carefully done, not only so that actual and potential clients see they make sense, but also to ensure that leading IP lights internally do not decide to jump ship and ply their trade elsewhere. 

The other thing to think about is that if this is happening at Clifford Chance, similar debates are no doubt occuring in many other full service law firms across the world. A few years ago, it was fashionable to think that the specialist IP firms - or the firms that had decided to make IP one of their key offerings - may struggle should the big full-service players decide to throw themselves into IP. That does not look like such a clearcut proposition nowadays.  

Sectors

IP management, IP business