In a recent Law.com feature, patent partners Amanda Tessar, Daniel Keese, and David St. John-Larkin discussed what brought them to Holland & Hart and their perspectives on the firm’s continued focus on intellectual property.
For Amanda Tessar, the appeal came down to the firm's approach to the practice. "What we're really seeing from our end is the investment by Holland & Hart in IP that's of a different nature and quality and quantity than we're seeing from other firms, both in the Denver market and nationally," she said. Tessar added that the reaction from clients about the move had been "almost uniformly overwhelmingly positive."
David St. John-Larkin, who focuses on transactional patent work, said that investment includes Holland & Hart's "significant technological advancements over the past decade." He recalled first taking notice of the firm years ago: "I was losing work to Holland & Hart years ago, and I ended up asking a few people around Denver, 'What's different? Why are people looking at Holland & Hart?'" He pointed to the firm's early embrace of legal technology as a key differentiator, explaining that Holland & Hart "brought on legal engineers 10 years ago to work on automation and workflows for their patent group, which was a revolutionary concept that definitely helped them win some work away."
For Daniel Keese, the move was about opportunity and building something alongside familiar faces. "For my part, it was really about moving toward an opportunity and getting to be part of building something," he said, "particularly with colleagues who were great friends and who had come over to Holland & Hart."
Amanda and David are based in Denver, while Daniel joins the firm remotely from Portland, Oregon.
Read the full Law.com article here: https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2026/08/10/holland--hart-lifts-3-partner-patent-team-from-ashurst-perkins-coie-/