Ian Saffer, left, Michael Aldana, center, and Brad Vynalek are attorneys with the Quarles & Brady law firm. (Quarles)
A local intellectual property law group has merged with the national firm Quarles & Brady.
Littleton-based Adsero IP was founded in 1994. It had 14 attorneys and 29 total employees before it became the Denver office of Quarles through a merger March 1.
“We’d been talking for about a year,” said Ian Saffer, former managing partner at Adsero. “We were not actively looking for a merger but we were interested in potential opportunities to address some business needs and Quarles presented a very compelling opportunity.”
Quarles is a 130-year-old business law firm with 520 attorneys in a dozen U.S. offices.
Michael Aldana, its managing partner, said in a press release that “opening an office in Denver was a logical next step” for the powerhouse firm. Brad Vynalek, a president there, called Denver an “ever-burgeoning” market for intellectual property and business law.
All Adsero employees and clients have moved over to Quarles and the former firm plans to keep its office in Littleton for now, though it may re-evaluate its real estate needs this year.
Saffer said the merger will allow his lawyers to handle more litigation than they previously could, along with cases outside their niche, such as real estate law and labor disputes.
“We’ve had a number of offers to join (other firms) but we’ve never found somebody who was as perfect a fit as we think we’ve found now. We think we found a perfect partner,” he said.
When asked if it’s bittersweet to see Adsero go away after 30 years, he said, “I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet. I would say it’s a new chapter and one that the timing is great for.”
