SAN FRANCISCO — On a sunny April day, entrepreneurs, students, investors and robotics enthusiasts swarmed the grounds of Wilmer’s Palo Alto office to marvel at robots roving, flying, swimming and talking. It was one of the premier events of National Robotics Week—the Silicon Valley Robot Block Party, hosted for the very first time at a law firm.

And it was Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr corporate partner Glenn Luinenburg’s relationship with Silicon Valley Robotics that brought some of the industry’s hottest tech shops, including SRI International, GIGAmacro and Revolve Robotics, to the firm’s backyard.