Hale and Dorr has created a strategic relationship with Hutchison & Mason PLLC, of Raleigh, N.C., the Research Triangle's leading technology law firm.

Hutchison & Mason focuses on representing early stage Internet, software, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies and has worked with some of the Research Triangle's hottest technology companies, including OpenSite Technologies, Accipiter, Alerts.com, InterAdNet, SciQuest.com, Trimeris, Cogent Neuroscience, XS, Pozen and Relativity Technologies. Fred Hutchison was also the founding president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the country.

According to Hutchison, "What we do best is work with startup technology companies and guide them from their formative stage, through their various financing stages, and through their exit stage, whether it is an IPO or an acquisition. Our relationship with Hale and Dorr will introduce our clients to more sources of venture capital and provide access to Hale and Dorr's tremendous experience in handling IPOs for technology companies and their contacts with IPO underwriters. Also, as the Internet continues to break down country boundaries and our clients' operations become international, we will be able to use Hale and Dorr's international capability to continue to serve our clients' needs as they expand overseas. We believe that our relationship with Hale and Dorr allows us to focus on meeting our firm's goal of serving startups through their life cycle while staying independent."

"We recognize the phenomenal growth of technology companies in the Research Triangle area, which mirrors the dramatic growth of new technology companies in the areas we now serve in Boston, Reston, Virginia, New York and, through Brobeck Hale and Dorr International, London and Oxford," said Hale and Dorr Managing Partner William F. Lee. "We are very impressed with Hutchison & Mason's dynamic clients and the efficient and effective model that the law firm has developed for serving the legal needs of these early stage technology companies. We believe that through our relationship with Hutchison & Mason, we will provide access for our venture capital clients to a number of promising technology companies in the Research Triangle area. We also hope to provide valuable services to clients of Hutchison & Mason when they need the resources and breadth of services of a large international technology law firm."