Judge Linda S. Marks joined Judicate West as neutral.

Marks served two decades on the Orange County Superior Court bench where she presided over all types of civil matters. During her judicial tenure, she presided over a wide variety of civil matters ranging from contentious real estate disputes to emotionally charged sexual assault cases, as well as all types of wrongful death and injury cases.

Amy Alexander joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Alexander represents Fortune 100 companies in the automotive industry and has significant experience in the construction industry as well. Her primary practice includes litigation pertaining to automotive product liability claims, including the alleged failure of vehicle systems and sub-systems, consumer fraud, and consumer warranty litigation. She has litigated numerous matters throughout California, preparing them for trial and successfully negotiating settlements on behalf of her clients. She also provides counsel in overseeing and implementing general litigation strategies aimed at reducing mass litigation against her manufacturer clients.

Jena Watson joined Arentfox Schiff LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Watson will counsel both private and public companies on a range of financing transactions. Her practice will focus on serving as counsel in municipal finance transactions, assisting clients in financing, real estate, and other aspects of infrastructure deals; and advising on public-private partnership (P3) projects. She has represented both lenders and borrowers in private debt financings, recapitalizations and acquisition facilities, leveraged and structured financings, mezzanine debt, securitized executions and distressed debt situations, among other complex transactions. She has worked on large financial transactions in numerous industries, including housing, energy, and manufacturing projects.

Jennifer L. Liu as partner

Liu is the co-managing partner of the firm's new San Francisco office. Liu is a nationally recognized litigator in employment discrimination and wage and hour class actions. She also represents individuals in litigation and negotiation in all areas of employment law. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Liu frequently represents executives and other professionals in the technology, financial services, and health care industries. Liu was managing partner at Liu Peterson-Fisher and also founded the firm's predecessor, The Liu Law Firm, P.C., in 2015.

Rebecca B. Peterson-Fisher as partner

Peterson-Fisher litigates individual cases and class actions involving discrimination and wage and hour violations, with a focus on cases that advance social justice. Previously, she was an attorney with a Los Angeles civil rights law firm, a senior staff attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, and a trial attorney with the Brooklyn Family Defense Project (now Brooklyn Defender Services).

Leah Kennedy as associate

Kennedy represents plaintiffs in employment and civil rights matters. She graduated in 2022 from Stanford Law School, where she was involved in disability justice, immigrant rights and worker rights causes, and founded the Racial and Disability Justice Project, a pro bono project centered on empowering Latinx families in attaining services for their children with disabilities.

Gregory G. Spaulding joined JAMS as neutral in San Francisco.

Spaulding will serve as a mediator, arbitrator, special master/referee, and neutral evaluator, handling estate/probate/trusts, personal injury/torts, employment, business/commercial, construction defect, civil rights, intellectual property, and appellate cases. He is available to conduct sessions in person, as well as virtually, for clients across the country.

Joshua Cook joined Goodwin as partner in San Francisco.

Cook specializes in the representation of emerging growth companies, venture capital firms, and private equity investment funds. His work spans the entire corporate lifecycle, including strategic decisions and coaching prior to incorporation, prospective investor introductions, general corporate representation and counseling, venture capital financings, employment matters, commercial contracts, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions.

Deborah Greaves joined Offit Kurman as principal in Los Angeles, CA.

Greaves' practice focuses on providing clients with domestic and global intellectual property, privacy and protection strategy in the fashion, food, consumer products, retail and technology sectors, along with corporate, commercial and employment-related legal services. Counseling companies in developing and monetizing IP and brand enforcement strategies, she has experience negotiating licensing and distribution agreements, domain registration strategies and defending against counterfeiting or infringement that could damage or dilute a brand.

Kristin Kosinski joined Munck Wilson Mandala, LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Kosinski is well known for ensuring her clients' brands are protected, and sensible strategies are developed through the life cycle of the brand, including brand name clearance, enforcement, and litigation if necessary. She also advises clients on entertainment contracts, and she helps license trademarks for luxury goods. Well-versed in IP law, Kosinski's skills include guiding clients through copyright matters, domain name conflicts, and proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She is a registered patent attorney and boasts considerable experience in patent law, preparing and prosecuting applications for wearable devices, cosmetics, beauty products, nutrition supplements, biotechnology, and consumer products. Kosinski also provides due diligence on IP assets in corporate transactions and financing, ensuring that her clients' assets are protected and the deals her clients want to close have the appropriate language and legal clauses in place to protect IP assets for both startups and established businesses.

Roxanne Nurse joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP as attorney in San Diego.

Nurse is a litigator with over a decade of experience. She has an extensive background representing businesses in workers' compensation defense. She has represented large insurance companies and self-insured corporations, handling case management, discovery processes, in-depth depositions, and strategic legal planning to mitigate client exposure.

Susan Rohol joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Rohol's practice is focused on advising clients on legal issues and regulations spanning technology, privacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, intellectual property, regulatory investigations, and global government affairs.

Shawn E. Cowles joined Dhillon Law Group as partner in Newport Beach.

Cowles is an experienced trial attorney with a proven track record of success. Shawn is a bold and fearless litigator who is unafraid to take a case to trial when it's in the best interest of his client. Shawn has taken "bet the company" cases to trial, and he has won. Shawn specializes in complex commercial litigation, construction defect and real estate litigation, and insurance coverage matters on behalf of policy holders.

Paul Burdick joined ADR Services Inc. as neutral.

Judge Burdick was appointed to the bench by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. During his 17-year judicial tenure, Burdick primarily served in the Civil Department, with additional assignments in Probate and the Criminal Felony Department. In 2007, Burdick established the Court's judicial mediation program, which replaced mandatory settlement conferences. While serving in the Civil Department, Judge Burdick efficiently managed a direct calendar, handling cases from filing to law and motion, judicial mediation, and trial. He presided over nearly 100 jury trials and scores of bench trials involving every area of civil and probate law. He was also the court's designated CEQA judge and Complex Litigation judge. In his final seven years on the bench, he also served in the Court's Appellate Division.

Robin C. Gilden joined Offit Kurman as principal in Los Angeles, CA.

With many years of experience in tax law, Gilden advises clients regarding partnership, corporate, individual income and estate tax planning issues, executive compensation issues, including the rules applicable to non-qualified deferred compensation.

Robert Klyman joined DLA Piper LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Klyman represents companies, lenders, other creditors, acquirers, and boards of directors in all phases of restructurings and workouts. His practice includes advising companies and key stakeholders in complicated workouts, including traditional, prepackaged, and pre-negotiated bankruptcies, structuring cutting-edge distressed mergers and acquisitions, negotiating bankruptcy financings, and litigating complex bankruptcy and commercial matters related to financial distress.

Adrienne Gurley joined Venable LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Gurley most recently served as senior counsel at the former Silicon Valley Bank, where she was the head of litigation. She focused on conducting internal investigations and advising the enterprise on fraud, regulatory, ethics, compliance, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), data and privacy governance, and global employee relations matters. Prior to this, she was senior counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where she investigated and prosecuted federal securities law violations, including market manipulation, EB-5 visa program fraud, cryptocurrency, financial fraud, cybersecurity and data breach, offering fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and insider trading. She was an assistant U.S. attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, where she represented the United States in briefing 12 cases and presenting four appellate oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In addition, she served as lead prosecutor in 57 criminal trials, including 15 felony jury trials, in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Earlier in her career, Gurley was an associate with an international law firm, where she represented pharmaceutical companies and technology companies in complex false labeling, unfair competition, and patent infringement cases.

Helen B. Kim joined Norton Rose Fulbright as partner in Los Angeles.

Kim has more than 30 years of experience representing public and private companies, as well as their directors, officers and principal shareholders before the courts and in arbitration proceedings. She defends clients in shareholder derivative suits, nationwide securities class actions, and securities and commodities enforcement proceedings. She also guides companies and their officers through regulatory investigations.

Caleb Y. Lee joined FordHarrison as counsel in Los Angeles.

Lee regularly appears in both federal and state courts, as well as before administrative agencies, where he adeptly defends employers in a wide range of employment litigation and administrative charge cases. His notable experience includes skillfully representing clients in class actions involving wage and hour claims under the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as handling background check claims under California's Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act, Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Additionally, Caleb has successfully handled representative actions under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).

Daniel J. Weinberg joined Hopkins & Carley as of counsel in Redwood City.

Weinberg has successfully represented clients in the technology, energy, entertainment, and hospitality industries. His practice primarily involves patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation, as well as computer forensic investigation work. In addition, Weinberg has secured eight-figure victories for clients in insurance recovery litigation and defeated novel antitrust claims involving the acquisition of intellectual property. He also has represented clients in data security and privacy-related matters, including the defense of consumer class action claims and the establishment of comprehensive privacy and terms of use policies.

Cindy M. Lovering joined Sidley Austin LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Lovering is a member of the firm's California Global Finance practice, with a focus on representing lenders in fund finance and venture finance transactions. She has built a successful track record with extensive knowledge in global finance by leveraging her banking and financial center networks, in turn expanding Sidley's fund and debt finance footprint into the venture capital space and further establishing the firm's destination practice in Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice.

Claudia M. Coleman joined Armstrong Teasdale LLP as associate in Orange County.

Coleman regularly represents clients against employment-related claims brought under federal and state employment laws, including claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and whistleblower claims. Coleman also has experience representing clients against claims of wage and hour violations of California's Labor Code, class, and representative Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions.

Eryk Gettell joined Kennedys Law LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Gettell counsels insurers on complex insurance coverage and litigation matters involving director and officer liability, employment practices liability, financial institutions, professional liability, technology and media liability, cybersecurity and data privacy, and commercial general liability insurance. He has advised insurers on thousands of insurance claims such as securities class actions, board of director disputes, employment discrimination and sexual harassment matters, wage and hour lawsuits, professional negligence claims, regulatory investigations, data breach matters, and fiduciary liability claims.

Bruce Steinert joined Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Steinert advises and represents a range of clients on debt financing and other related matters. He works with private equity (PE) sponsors, debt investment funds, publicly traded companies, and privately held ventures. He also advises founder and PE portfolio companies on acquisition facilities, refinancing facilities, recapitalizations, distressed and workout facilities, bond issuance, and second-lien lender and junior debt financings, both domestic and multijurisdictional, in a wide array of industry sectors such as retail, wholesale, manufacturing, software, IT, business services, consulting, brokerage, apparel, health care, insurance, agriculture, chemicals, medical supplies, and pharmaceuticals.

Michele Wein Layne joined O'Melveny & Myers LLP as of counsel in Los Angeles.

Layne worked at the SEC for nearly 30 years and served in senior leadership positions for more than 17 years, including as the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Director for 11 years. She leverages this experience to represent and advise corporate clients and their boards, committees, officers, and directors on securities-related enforcement matters, internal and regulatory investigations, and governance and compliance issues.

Rob C. Keitamo joined Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel as attorney in Pleasanton.

Keitamo offers clients comprehensive counsel in real estate matters, including lease disputes and enforcement; lease drafting and negotiation; habitability claims; rent board petitions, arbitrations, and mediations; and tenancy buyouts.