Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer has become the latest law firm to open an office in Boston, securing a co-leader of Foley Hoag’s life sciences industry group for the launch.

Hemmie Chang has left Foley after nearly 13 years to lead Arnold & Porter’s new office, which the Washington DC-based firm said would focus on life sciences and health care transactions, litigation, regulatory counselling and government investigations. 

Joining Chang in the new office are Joshua Barlow and Fred Kelly, trial lawyers who joined Arnold & Porter earlier in the summer from technology-focused law firm Haug Partners. 

Arnold & Porter said it already has a number of Boston-based biotech companies as clients and that having an office there would “further integrate” it into its life sciences and healthcare industry. 

“Being in Boston will allow the team to closely collaborate with local industry players, strengthen our presence and enhance our ability to serve clients,” said Dan Kracov, co-chair of Arnold & Porter’s life sciences and healthcare regulatory practice and its global life sciences practice.

Chairman Richard Alexander also noted that the firm plans to invest further in the office by recruiting other attorneys from the area. 

For her part Chang advises clients on intellectual property transactions and while at Foley worked with clients including Korean biotech company LegoChem Biosciences and Massachusetts-based Dicerna Pharmaceuticals on multiple deals. She has joined Arnold & Porter as a partner in the corporate and finance practice and life sciences industry group. 

Meantime Barlow and Kelly focus on complex commercial and product liability disputes for life sciences companies across a range of matters including consumer product pricing, misappropriation of trade secrets and proprietary information, patent infringement and product advertising and promotion. 

News of its Boston launch follows Arnold & Porter bolstering its wider life sciences team in the US over the past year with partner hires from rivals including Cooley, Sandoz and Reed Smith. Last summer the firm also significantly boosted its European life sciences regulatory offering with the hire of partners Carla Schoonderbeek and Bart Jong from Dutch firm Hoyng Rokh Monegier to open an office in Amsterdam. 

A number of other law firms have looked to Boston recently, including Washington DC-based Covington & Burling, which hired the former chair of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo’s corporate practice to open there in April.

Other US firms launching in the city over the past few years include Barnes & Thornburg, Fox Rothschild and Husch Blackwell. UK firms Clyde & Co and Allen & Overy have also set up shop there, the latter after hiring a five-strong IP litigation team from Goodwin Procter.