Three senior corporate finance attorneys have joined Reed Smith. Susan Alker, formerly of O’Melveny & Myers, and Ken Ikari, formerly of Irell & Manella, join Reed Smith as partners in the firm’s Los Angeles office; Ramsey Hanna, formerly of Alschuler Grossman, joins the firm as counsel in the firm’s Century City office. These hires are representative of the firm’s committment to growing its Southern California practice, as well as to meeting the needs of its corporate clients in the region. As one of the 15 largest law firms in the world, Reed Smith has over 1,500 lawyers and 21 offices worldwide.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Los Angeles-based firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro is opening a new office in Costa Mesa, CA this month. This decision comes after the recent hiring of Gordon Schaller, the former managing partner of Greenberg Traurig’s Orange County office. Schaller, a tax estate planning attorney, will head the office, and some partners from the L.A. office who live in Orange County will also work there. The firm will be looking to hire more attorneys over the next six months. The Costa Mesa office is Jeffer’s third in CA, with the firm already having offices in Century City and San Francisco.
Source: www.law.com

Goodwin Proctor has recruited biotechnology lawyer Stephen Ferruolo from Heller Ehrman to launch an office in San Diego. Ferruolo is also vice president and general counsel for Biocom, the region’s biotechnology industry organization. Partner Ryan Murr, several associates and a paralegal are also leaving Heller Ehrman’s life sciences practice for Goodwin Proctor. The firm’s new San Diego office is a part of its “California initiative”; Goodwin now has two offices in LA, one in San Francisco, and one in San Diego.
Source: www.signonsandiego.com

Loeb & Loeb has hired Thomas Guida for its Intellectual Property and Entertainment group. Coming from Baker & Hostetler, Guida joins the New York office as a partner. His practice focuses on the development, licensing, financing and protection of intellectual property assets, with a particular emphasis on digital and interactive media, branded entertainment, entertainment technology and complex licensing transactions. Guida is the fourth lateral partner hire in the past two months for Loeb & Loeb’s IP group; the firm has plans to add two more soon. Loeb & Loeb is a national firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Nashville.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP has added three partners and an associate to its growing downtown Los Angeles office. To accomodate this expanding office, the firm recently opened an additional floor at 333 South Hope Street. The four new hires were needed to handle real estate finance deals and class action litigation. Real estate finance specialist David Fong joins Thelen from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and will be the contact person for the firm’s real estate finance practice in Southern California. Class action expert and appellate law specialist Steven Katz joins the Labor and Employment Department from Jones Day. Real Estate partner Jarrett Fugh will split his time between the firm’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, and Real Estate associate Martha Bringas will also move to the downtown Los Angeles office from Century City to assist on real estate finance deals. Since Thelen’s December merger, the firm has increased the number of deals it is doing on the West Coast; the firm has already handled more than $1 billion in West Coast deals for major investment banking clients.
Source: www.prnewswire.com

Nixon Peabody has acquired 17 intellectual property lawyers from Jenkens Gilchrist. All but one of the attorneys will be joining the Chicago office; the other will work in Los Angeles. These IP lawyers specialize in patent litigation, a particularly profitable area. This group departure is just one of many faced by Jenkens over the past months.
Source: www.bizjournals.com

Boston firm Goodwin Proctor has opened two new offices on the West Coast. The 700-lawyer firm opened in San Diego and Los Angeles, and is considering a Silicon Valley office opening in the next six months. With its acquisition of former Heller Ehrman partners, Stephen Ferruolo and Ryan Murr, the San Diego office will specialize in technology and life sciences. Managing Partner, Regina Pisa, expects to hire about 25 lawyers, including eight partners, for that office. The LA office will open with Dean Pappas and Dani Vogt, former partners at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, as well as Edward Hagerott Jr., previously with Munger, Tolles & Olson. With the addition of several associates, this office will eventually employ 11 attorneys.
Source: www.law.com

Foley & Lardner has expanded its Los Angeles operation with the addition of a downtown office to its existing Century City location. The new 53,000 square-foot office is located at 555 S. Flower St. in City National Plaza. The firm now has 20 offices worldwide with seven located in California. While the Century City office continues work in intellectual property and the entertainment industry, the downtown office will focus on its growing corporate and litigation practices.
Source: www.globest.com

Los Angeles has become a center of recruiting activity over the past nine months, as at least seven mid-sized East Coast firms have opened or expanded offices in LA. Duane Morris; Dreier; Goodwin Procter; Hunton & Williams; McGuireWoods; Steptoe & Johnson LLP; and Venable are some of the firms that have made a move on the West Coast. The new offices tend to be in Century City, a pricier area, where clients are often involved in new media, entertainment, and technology. Several of the firms have gained large groups of lawyers from local firms; Goodwin Proctor, for example, recruited a group of real estate lawyers from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
Source: www.law.com

Four litigators have joined the New York and Los Angeles offices of Winston & Strawn. Jeffrey P. Rosenstein, Robert J. Saville and Kenneth D. O’Reilly have joined its New York office, and Rebecca L. Calkins joins the firm’s Los Angeles office. All four attorneys were formerly with Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP; they follow a group of eight lawyers that moved to Winson in February. Joining as partner, Rosenstein focuses on construction, infrastructure, and engineering matters. Saville will be of counsel, dealing with a variety of commercial litigation and abitration issues. The other two attorneys join the firm as associates.
Source: www.lawfuel.com