Patent litigator McKool Smith close to deal for two floors at 1 Manhattan West

Patent-litigation law firm McKool Smith is in late-stage talks to lease two pricey tower floors at Brookfield Property Partners’ 1 Manhattan West.

The Dallas-based firm, which made a name for itself in the early 2000s taking on companies like Microsoft and SAP in patent disputes, has a lease out for 64,000 square feet on the 67-story tower’s 50th and 51st floors, sources told The Real Deal.

The asking rent for the space is $108 per square foot, and the lease would run for 16 years.

A spokesperson for Brookfield declined to comment on the deal, and a representative for McKool Smith couldn’t be immediately reached.

McKool would join the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and the National Hockey League, which have already signed on for more than 700,000 square feet combined at the 2.1 million-square-foot tower.

The law firm got its start in 1991 in Texas, which had become a hotbed for patent litigation cases after the semiconductor giant Texas Instruments began using the courts to go after Asian companies it accused of stealing its patents.

McKool opened an office in New York City in 2008 at Boston Properties’ 399 Park Avenue. The next year it signed a sublease with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld covering 30,000 square feet at the Durst Organization’s One Bryant Park, where it’s currently headquartered. That deal is set to expire in 2019.

The company also has an office at 245 Park Avenue, which it acquired when it merged with the boutique bankruptcy firm Hennigan Dorman in 2011.

McKool joins the ever-growing list of firms relocating to the Far West Side from Midtown. The Silicon Valley law firm Cooley LLP is relocating from Brookfield’s Grace Building overlooking Bryant Park to several floors near the top of the Related Companies’ 55 Hudson Yards.

A team of brokers at Cushman & Wakefield led by Bruce Mosler is handling the leasing effort at Manhattan West. Josh Kuriloff and Drew Braverman, also of Cushman, are representing McKool Smith in the negotiations.

(To view more office leasing transactions at Brookfield properties, click here)