California salary increases continue as Chicago firm Winston & Strawn is the latest to bump up starting pay to $160,000. The firm has about 70 associates in its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld also applied the NY scale to its CA offices and its D.C. headquarters. Cooley Godward Kronish also increased first-year salariess firmwide to the $160K pay scale.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

This week Bingham McCutchen acquired 40-lawyer L.A. litigation firm Alschuler Grossman. Name partner and legal powerhouse, Marshall Grossman, had wanted to join up with a national firm for over a year, and discussions finally started in November. Alschuler’s former name partners Stanton Stein and Robert Kahan, on the other hand, did not want to go national, and so on Jan. 1 they left with 35 lawyers to form Dreier, Stein & Kahan. The merger is beneficial for both firms as Bingham was weak in litigation, and Alschuler found itself lacking a corporate componenet when Stein and Kahan departed. Bingham now has more resources for expansion in Southern California; with three acquistions in California over the past five years, the firm is growing significantly in the Sunshine State.
Source: www.law.com

Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps has recruited hot-shot land use lawyer, Timothy Tosta, from Steefel, Levitt & Weiss. Tosta will join the San Francisco office, along with four other real estate attorneys from Steefel. Tosta’s departure adds to the number of partner losses Steefel has faced in the past year; the firm’s attorney headcount is now at 50. Most of the lawyers who have left have gone to larger national firms. Luce, Forward has 200 attorneys and five offices in California, though it plans to expand further into the Bay Area and Los Angeles. It’s 21-lawyer San Francisco office focuses on real estate, bankruptcy, and business and real estate litigation.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Phoenix-based firm Snell & Wilmer has its sights set on the West Coast for further expansion. The plans for growth come with the firm’s significant increases in annual revenues and lateral hires. The firm has been particularly successful with its litigation, especially products liability, consumer class actions and intellectual property; the other focus is transactional work. The firm’s first priority in its California expansion is Los Angeles; after that, there is consideration of opening offices in San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle, and Portland. However, the firm chairman emphasizes that expansion must first be proceeded by acquiring the right group of lawyers or firms.
Source: www.law.com

Three new corporate lawyers have joined Reed Smith’s Los Angeles offices. Irell & Manella partner Ken Ikari and O’Melveny & Myers counsel Susan Alker are joining the firm’s LA office as partners, and Alschuler Grossman partner Ramsey Hanna is joining the Century City office as counsel. Reed Smith’s corporate and securities group has grown to 140 lawyers over the past few years. All three lawyers cite Reed Smith’s national and international platform as a big draw to the firm; the firm has over 1,500 lawyers and 21 offices worldwide.
Source: www.law.com

Loeb & Loeb has hired three more lawyers for its LA office. Laura Wytsma, a patent litigation partner in Los Angeles, comes from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. The firm also brought in two associates, Timothy Bellamy and Paul Sagan, for the entertainment and media group. The firm now has 260 attorneys, up from 195 in 2005. Earnings also increased last year; the firm reported a 23 percent increase in revenue and a 27 percent boost in profits per partner. After hard times in the mid-1990s, Loeb & Loeb has rebounded nicely, increasing profitability by remaining midsized and focused. This success has attractive top lateral candidates; already nine lawyers have joined the firm this year.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

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