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

Dallas-based firm Jenkens & Gilchrist has shrunk from 600 lawyers in 2001 to less than 200. Over the past few years the firm was sued by former clients over improper tax shelter advice and has been strategically downsizing in response. Its most recent move was the handing over of its entire 19-lawyer L.A. office to Baker Hostetler. Jenkens also moved most of its Chicago office, about 15 IP lawyers, to Nixon Peabody this week. It is also rumored that some of Jenkens’ Dallas lawyers might join Hunton & Williams.
Source: www.law.com

Foley & Lardner LLP announced today the opening of another office in Los Angeles. Adding to the Century City branch, the firm will open an office in downtown LA catering more to its corporate and litigation practices. Jack Lasater, the current managing partner in Century City, will also oversee the new LA office. This office is the firm’s 7th in CA and 20th worldwide.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Over the past eight months, Los Angeles has become the hotspot for mid-size East Coast firms looking to expand. Seven firms have opened or expanded offices in LA: Duane Morris; Dreier; Goodwin Procter; Hunton & Williams; McGuireWoods; Steptoe & Johnson LLP; and Venable. Several of these firms have recruited large numbers of attorneys from prominent local firms; Goodwin Proctor, for example, acquired real estate partners from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Century City. The recent activity seems to be the beginning of a trend – lawyers in the west are considering their options and are much more willing to move than some others.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

New York firm, Milberg Weiss & Bershad, promoted four associates to partners this week. Neil Fraser, Matthew Kuppilas and Christopher Polaszek have joined the partnership in the firm’s NY headquarters, while new partner Sabrina Kim is based in Los Angeles. The firm also promoted two associates to of counsel.
Source: www.nylawyer.com