(Reuters) - K&L Gates is looking to make a splash in Nashville, launching a new office there with a team of 27 attorneys, including 18 partners poached from four different firms.

The new office, announced Wednesday, will be temporarily led by Mary Beth Johnston, who is already serving as the managing partner of K&L Gates' office in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Johnston said the firm didn't want to burden an incoming partner with the role's administrative responsibilities.

Nashville is a sought-after middle market for law firms due to its concentration of healthcare companies, as well as its strength in finance, manufacturing, technology and other industries. Johnston and Craig Budner, the global strategic growth partner at K&L Gates, said they wanted the firm's arrival in Music City to make a "significant statement."

"We want to connect to this market in a significant way," Budner said, adding that the firm wouldn't have opened a Nashville office if it was only going to have one or two lawyers stationed there initially.

Among the partners K&L Gates has recruited to its new office is Ken Marlow, who chaired the health care practice at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, a Nashville-based law firm that touts itself as one of the country's largest health care law firms.

"Ken Marlow is among the best of the best in Nashville," said Johnston, who is also the co-leader of K&L Gates' healthcare and FDA practice.

The other Waller partners who made the jump to K&L Gates with Marlow are Kim Looney, Stephen Page and Wells Beckett.

Half of the new partners joining the firm are from Butler Snow: Adam Smith, Joseph Welborn III, Charles Malone, Jason Callen, Lauren Patten, Erin Palmer Polly, Robert Walker, Beau Creson and David Bartz.

Rounding the rest of the team are four partners from Dickinson Wright – Jack R. (Rob) Dodson III, Slade Sevier, Emma Wolfe and Ryan Lee – and R. Gregory Parker, a registered U.S. patent attorney from Bass, Berry & Sims.

"We want to be a legitimate contributor in that market," Johnston said. "We try to be the best in all of the markets where we have offices. I also think it was important for Nashville clients and the business community to understand how full service we're going to be in Nashville."

With its new location, Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates now boasts offices in two dozen U.S. cities, on top of another 21 outposts globally.

K&L Gates is the latest firm to launch a new office this week. On Monday, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Holland & Knight, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett announced they were opening offices in Atlanta, Orange County, California and Brussels, respectively.