Houston-based intellectual property law firm Patterson + Sheridan announced this week that it has opened a new office in Waco, Texas and added a patent expert from a client.

Abelino “Abel” Reyna, a former two-term district attorney of McLennan County, will lead the outpost in Waco. Houston attorney Arien Ferrell, who has worked in-house at firm client Intuit for close to 15 years, is moving to Patterson + Sheridan in Houston. Both join the firm as of counsel.

The hiring of Reyna is part of a larger firm strategy to expand its expertise beyond intellectual property law.

“We are expanding our litigation practice to include not only intellectual property cases, but also general business litigation and white-collar criminal defense cases,” Patterson + Sheridan founding partner B. Todd Patterson said in a statement. “Abel Reyna had an extensive background in criminal defense work before he became district attorney.”

Though Ferrell is leaving the Intuit legal department, the firm says he will continue to play a major role in leading Intuit’s patent portfolio team in the strategy, development and operations of Intuit’s global patent program. Before his tenure at Intuit, Ferrell was in-house at Sun Microsystems.