June 23, 2008 (St. Louis & Kansas City, Mo.) – Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP announced today its intent to combine with Welsh & Katz, Ltd., a 45 lawyer, Chicago-based intellectual property firm, with a special expertise in the high-technology, biotech, and pharmaceutical fields among others. The proposed transaction will double the size of Husch Blackwell Sanders’ intellectual property practice group and substantially enhance its intellectual property litigation capabilities.

“While not yet complete, the prospects for the Welsh & Katz strategic combination are exciting,” said David A. Fenley, co-chairman of Husch Blackwell Sanders. Fenley added, “This opportunity accelerates our positioning in Chicago and is important to our ability to expand practices in one of the top legal markets in the U.S.” According to Fenley, the name of the combined firm in Chicago would be Husch Blackwell Sanders Welsh & Katz.

“We are excited by the opportunities Husch Blackwell Sanders’ larger litigation and business services platform provides our clients,” explained A. Sidney Katz, who will serve as chair of the firm’s national intellectual property group and co-chair of the Chicago office. “Likewise the ability to market our intellectual property legal capabilities to Husch Blackwell Sanders’ clients is also attractive. We think the combination of our respective firms will provide great benefits in intellectual property litigation, as well as in the traditional area of procurement of patents, trademarks and copyrights,” he said.

Joseph P. Conran, co-chairman of Husch Blackwell Sanders, added, “Welsh & Katz is a highly regarded intellectual property and intellectual property litigation firm and the combination reinforces our commitment to provide our clients with excellent service and specialized expertise in this area of law.”

Welsh & Katz, Ltd. is a full-service intellectual property law firm with 45 attorneys focused on patents, trademarks, and copyrights; intellectual property litigation; trade secret protection; domain name protection; product anti-counterfeiting; clearance opinions; and licensing transactions. Visit www.welshkatz.com for more information.

Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP is a litigation and business services law firm with approximately 625 attorneys. The firm has offices in Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Jefferson City, Missouri; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago and Peoria, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Overland Park, Kansas; Washington, D.C.; and London, England