April Kim joined Akin as partner in Irvine.

Kim's practice is focused on the energy sector, advising investors, sponsors, developers, and other renewable energy stakeholders in tax equity and tax credit transactions, mergers and acquisitions, project development and debt financings.

Zach P. Hutton joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Hutton's practice spans all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and harassment, family and medical leaves, and wage and hour issues. He has successfully represented employers in numerous class and collective actions, agency investigations, individual plaintiff cases, and administrative hearings.

Alec C. Stone joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP as senior counsel in Los Angeles.

Stone is an insurance regulatory attorney. As the former head of the California Department of Insurance's Rate Enforcement Bureau, he is uniquely positioned to advise insurers and other entities subject to California's extensive regulatory framework, including prior approval applications, market conduct issues, enforcement actions, proposed regulations, and further matters related to Proposition 103.

Tami Kay Lee joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Lee has more than twenty years of experience as defense counsel, assisting clients in complex insurance matters, including policy analysis, coverage opinions, and commercial general liability. Her work encompasses reinsurance, excess liability, errors and omissions, directors and officers, cyber liability, and data breach losses. In addition to her legal background, she is a Certified Public Accountant, providing clients with critical insight into financial and accounting aspects that arise in litigation.

Quyen L. Ta joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Ta is a high-stakes trial and complex civil litigation lawyer focusing nationwide on consumer class actions, business disputes, and international and U.S. arbitrations. Her clients include publicly traded and venture-backed companies in various industries and regions worldwide.

Hector Almaguer joined Newell Law Group as senior counsel in Los Angeles and New York.

Almaguer specializes in music, television, and new media. His practice focuses a wide array of complex commercial matters and intellectual property across multiple English, Spanish, and Portuguese countries. He has over 30 years of experience as an attorney, musician, writer, record producer, and content creator whose work has won a Clio Award and has been Grammy-nominated. He's worked for and with some of the biggest names in media, including Universal Music Group, Paramount/Viacom, Warner/Discovery, Warner Music Group, HBO, and artists like Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, J Balvin, and Fat Joe.

Lee M Mendelson as mediator in Valley Village

Mendelson has more than 25 years of experience as a litigator and has been trained as a mediator at Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation and Pepperdine Law School's Institute for Dispute Resolution. He is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and is licensed to practice in California, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. Lee served as the managing attorney of Mendelson Law Group, APC from 2006 to 2023, and received the Certified Subrogation Recovery Professional designation from the National Association of Subrogation Professionals. He is a member of the Board of Associate Editors for the Commercial Law League of America and is a sought out presenter on various topics including subrogation, business litigation, tort liability, and legal ethics.

Jeff Kiburtz joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Kiburtz has helped clients across industries to recover more than $1 billion from insurers over his career. He has handled all aspects of policyholder insurance and indemnification--with significant work in connection with business interruption losses, directors and officers coverages and data breaches--as well as wide-ranging experience representing insured parties operating in the technology, finance, real estate and construction, life sciences, health care, industrials, retail, higher education, sports, and media and entertainment sectors.

Oscar G. Jimenez joined Goldberg Segalla as partner in San Francisco.

Jimenez has managed and litigated cases involving construction defects, professional liability, employment and labor, and personal injury claims in state and federal courts throughout California. He represents a variety of businesses and licensed professionals in the construction industry in million-dollar construction defect and professional liability lawsuits, including developers, general contractors, subcontractors, and design professionals, including architects and engineers.

Leo Norton joined Jackson Lewis P.C. as principal in Orange County.

Norton has extensive experience defending against both nationwide and statewide consumer class actions under a range of statutes, including the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California Unfair Competition Law, California False Advertising Law, the Song Beverly Credit Card Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FACTA). He also handles cases related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, California's Unruh Act, California wage and hour class actions, and PAGA.

Honieh Udenka joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as associate in Orange County.

Udenka represents clients' interests across the country in complex disputes in various fields, including brand, reputation, and crisis management, as well as commercial and business litigation.

Victor J. Sandoval joined Blank Rome LLP as associate in Los Angeles.

Sandoval focuses his practice on defending clients in the growing number of complex class actions arising under federal and state consumer protection and privacy laws, such as the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, the federal Children Online Privacy Protection Act, and the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Leslie A Brueckner joined Singleton Schreiber as partner in San Diego.

Brueckner is key in enhancing Singleton Schreiber's ability to manage complex appeals and develop successful litigation strategies. Her extensive track record in high-stakes cases across various legal areas continues to solidify the firm's standing as a leader in precedent-setting litigation for plaintiffs nationwide.

Joshua M. Henderson was promoted to principal of Jackson Lewis P.C. in San Francisco.

Henderson has been appointed leader of the firm's national Workplace Safety and Health group. With extensive experience in navigating compliance regulations, policies, and interpretations under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and state and local agencies, Henderson is well-positioned to lead the group into its next phase of growth. Henderson represents employers across various industries in labor and employment litigation and counseling matters. His national OSHA practice includes providing training and strategic advice on compliance with workplace safety and health regulations under federal and state laws and defending employers in OSHA litigation across the United States. He is also a recognized thought leader in workplace safety and health. Additionally, he handles complex employment litigation matters, including wage and hour class actions, collective actions, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims, and defenses against whistleblowing, discrimination, and sexual harassment claims.

Carolyn Fitzhugh McNiven joined Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP as partner in San Francisco.

McNiven will serve as the leader of the West Coast white-collar defense team. With an extensive background in health care enforcement defense, McNiven represents public companies and individuals facing U.S. Department of Justice investigations and defends civil enforcement matters prompted by whistleblower complaints. She has led several high-profile corruption prosecutions of federal and state government officials, including a sitting governor and a U.S. State Department official.

Anne M. Voigts joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as partner in Silicon Valley.

Voigts has represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, state and federal appellate courts, and trial courts. In addition to her appellate practice, Voigts advises clients on critical motions and partners with trial teams on complex legal issues. She leads Pillsbury's Appellate practice and has argued over 70 cases in federal and state appellate courts.

Hathanh H. Nguyen joined Goldberg Segalla as special counsel in Los Angeles.

Nguyen is a skilled litigator who counsels and defends clients in the retail and transportation industries concerning a variety of civil matters. She handles a wide range of personal injury claims, including catastrophic injuries, traumatic brain injuries and wrongful death, during all phases of litigation from case opening through resolution. Nguyen is experienced in all aspects of civil litigation, including drafting and arguing pleadings and motions, developing strategic investigation and discovery plans, conducting and responding to discovery, defending depositions, negotiating settlements, and participating in various forms of alternative dispute resolution.

Dorothy L. Black joined Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP as partner in San Diego.

Black focuses her practice on a broad spectrum of employment litigation matters. She represents employers and individual defendants facing claims from harassment and wrongful termination to discrimination based on age, disability, gender, and more. Her expertise includes navigating complex legal challenges such as retaliation, breaches of employment contracts, and unfair business practices. Her strategic approach to litigation has repeatedly proven effective in both individual and class action wage and hour lawsuits, establishing her as a trusted defender in high-stakes employment disputes.

Michelle K. Meek joined Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP as partner in San Diego.

Meek is a seasoned attorney specializing in labor and employment law, bringing over 15 years of experience to her practice. She has a strong track record of defending employers in high-stakes cases involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and wage and hour disputes. She has represented employers in single-plaintiff, class, and collective actions, with significant industry experience in hospitality and education, including charter and private institutions.

Amanda S. Gianninoto joined Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP as senior counsel in San Diego.

Gianninoto represents employers in workplace law matters, serving as both a preventive counselor and a litigator. With a proven track record in defending employers against complex legal disputes, she handles a wide array of issues, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and wage and hour claims.

Aaron Marienthal joined McGuireWoods LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Marienthal represents financial institutions, fintechs, and technology companies related to a variety of consumer lending issues, payments products, and legislative and government affairs. He has significant subject matter expertise in payments, auto and mortgage lending, bank partnerships, compliance, privacy, intellectual property, regulatory rulemaking, and technology partnerships.

Shailika Shah Kotiya joined McGuireWoods LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Kotiya has more than a decade of experience as a federal prosecutor, most recently as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of California, where she served as chief of the General Crimes Division after leading the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. Before moving to the West Coast in 2015, Kotiya was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina. As an AUSA, Kotiya led numerous criminal and civil trial teams and argued eight cases at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits before her promotion to divisional leadership roles.

Lara A. H. Shortz was promoted to office managing partner of Michelman & Robinson LLP in Los Angeles.

Shortz is sought after to negotiate complex employment agreements, navigate restrictive covenant issues, and litigate executive disputes. Over the years, countless professionals in c-suite positions have leaned upon her when transitioning to new companies. She has compiled an extraordinary record of wins representing high-profile businesses facing state and federal gender-based claims, including claims of pay equity and #metoo-related causes of action. Further, she has successfully defended scores of clients in the hospitality space, among other industries, in wage and hour class and collective actions (PAGA)--this on top of her many additional successes litigating single plaintiff discrimination, harassment and retaliation matters at both the state and federal levels.

Natalie P. Bryans joined Nukk-Freeman & Cerra, PC as associate in San Diego.

Bryans represents employers in complex litigation related to various employment issues, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and wage and hour disputes. In addition to representing clients in state and federal courts, she has defended claims brought before administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Civil Rights Department, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

Zachary N Zaharoff joined Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, LLP as senior associate in Burlingame.

Zaharoff has handled commercial disputes for over five years at a premier international law firm in San Francisco and New York. Zaharoff is an experienced civil litigator who represents clients in antitrust & global competition, commercial litigation, elder abuse, False Claims/whistleblower law, intellectual property & wrongful death.

Thomas E Loeser joined Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, LLP as partner in Burlingame.

Loeser represents consumers in nationwide class action cases and individuals in qui tam whistleblower cases. Loeser adds a hard science, and a high-technology career to his 25 years of litigation, including 18 years in class actions and five years as a federal prosecutor.

Scott Koller joined Clark Hill PLC as member in Los Angeles.

Koller is a privacy and data security attorney specializing in data breach response and security compliance. He assists clients across various industries in managing data-related risks, including incident response preparedness, cybersecurity training, and legal compliance.

Max Scott joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Scott represents clients in complex commercial transactions with a focus on technology and IP-related deals, including the IP aspects of private equity and M&A transactions. He advises on matters related to the joint development, licensing, acquisition, sale, use, and protection of IP. He also assists with agreements for the provision of technology-related services, reseller agreements, and outsourcing and distribution agreements.

Benjamin S. Kingsley joined Fenwick & West LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Kingsley's practice focuses on government investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, and complex civil litigation. Drawing on his years of prior experience at the Department of Justice, Kingsley specializes in helping cutting-edge technology, fintech, life sciences, healthcare, AI, and crypto companies navigate compliance and enforcement priorities within a complex landscape shaped by federal and state regulators and other agencies, including the DOJ, SEC, CFTC, FTC, CFPB, FinCEN, IRS, and various national security agencies.