Hogan & Hartson has become the first out-of-town firm to enter the San Francisco Bay Area legal market by picking up lawyers from the dissolving Heller Ehrman.

The 1,000-lawyer firm rooted in Washington, D.C., will open its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices with three and four Heller partners each. Two Heller partners will also join the firm's New York office. The nine-partner group joining Hogan & Hartson includes members of Heller's securities, white-collar, antitrust and labor and employment litigation practices, though the majority of the group is from the securities litigation practice.

In Seattle, a number of Heller lawyers have left for Davis Wright Tremaine, which is based in that city.

Hogan & Hartson boasts about its new arrivals in a statement that was scheduled to be issued Tuesday.

"The addition of this preeminent group of trial lawyers on the West Coast and in New York, many of whom are widely recognized as leaders in their fields and have held leadership positions with their previous firm, enables us to expand our range of experience throughout the firm," Hogan & Hartson Chairman J. Warren Gorrell Jr. says in the statement. "This is particularly true in the securities litigation area, where we are strengthening our existing national white collar and securities class action litigation practices."

The firm confirmed the moves, but did not have anyone immediately available for comment.

The group opening Hogan's Four Embarcadero Center location in San Francisco includes partners Howard Caro, Megan Dixon and Michael Shepard; of counsel Douglas Schwab; and at least two associates. The office at 525 University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., will open with partners Norman Blears, Michael Charlson, Robert Hawk and Laurence Weiss as well as three associates.

Blears and Charlson had both co-chaired Heller's securities litigation practice, and Shepard led the white-collar criminal defense practice.

In New York, Hogan also will add Heller partners Robert Buehler and Kenneth Kirschner, the head of Heller's labor and employment practice.

Hogan & Hartson was founded in 1904 and has 25 offices worldwide, including one in Los Angeles with nearly 25 partners. In 2007, the firm's revenue per lawyer was $850,000 and profits per partner were $1,185,000, which were 5 and 15 percent higher than Heller's, respectively.

MEANWHILE, IN SEATTLE ...

Seattle-based Davis Wright Tremaine, home to about 450 lawyers, also has picked up a group of at least four Heller partners. All from the Seattle office, they include office managing partner Brendan Mangan, Bruce Bjerke, Kenneth Payson and Warren Rheaume. Davis Wright is expected to make an official announcement later this week.

At least two other Seattle partners have landed elsewhere.

Partner Todd Glass, the Seattle-based head of Heller's energy practice, is headed to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, sources said. And Seattle partner Michael Dotten returned home to Portland, Ore., to start his own mediation and arbitration practice. Dotten had opened Heller's Portland office in 1983. That office closed in 2005.

To date, the largest group of hires out of Heller Ehrman remains the 27-partner group that joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe last week. The group that joined Orrick included the three former chairmen prior to Matthew Larrabee, who led the firm as it reached its dissolution vote on Sept. 26.

Heller Ehrman voted to dissolve about 10 days after merger talks with Mayer Brown collapsed and the departure of a group of 14 intellectual property litigation partners triggered a clause in the firm's contract with its credit suppliers -- Bank of America and Citibank -- allowing them to step in and force the shutdown.

At least 100 staffers were laid off on Friday, with more layoffs expected in the coming two weeks.