Locke Lord LLP

Lindsey E. Kress
was promoted to partner of Locke Lord LLP in San Francisco.
Kress concentrates her practice on defending clients in class action and financial services litigation as well as advising on privacy and cybersecurity issues. She regularly represents clients in complex matters in state and federal courts across the country. Kress has second-chair trial experience and has argued cases at both the trial and appellate level.
International law firm Withers

Conte C. Cicala
joined International law firm Withers as special counsel in San Francisco.
Conte focuses his practice on commercial, maritime, transportation and trade litigation, and providing corporate and legal advice to companies in these fields. He has extensive first-chair experience representing his clients at trial, arbitration and before government agencies and boards. He has counseled companies during merger discussions, government investigations, major contract negotiations, labor disputes, expansion into new modes of carriage and at other key junctures. He also sat on the board of directors of an international shipping line for almost a decade.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Katherine Schloss Ackerman
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Ackerman is a corporate partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice is principally focused on the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies.

Anna Baxendale
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Baxendale is an investment funds partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Philip C. Bush
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Bush represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of their businesses, with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, corporate governance, executive compensation matters, and other corporate matters. Philip has experience handling transactions ranging from several million dollars to multiple billions of dollars.
Kathleen M. Cloutier
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Cloutier is a corporate partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Matthew Dunnet
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Dunnet's practice focuses on representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies in various transactions, including leveraged and management buy-outs, sale transactions, minority investments, restructurings and financings.

Leahana Grimley
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Grimley's practice is focused on the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies on complex business transactions, including structuring and negotiating various strategic and leveraged acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, restructurings, incentive equity arrangements, and other general corporate matters.

Mary Kwan
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Kwan's practice focuses on the financial services industry, including private investment funds, investment advisers and investment companies.

Yan-Xin Li
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Li has represented clients in federal district courts and before the International Trade Commission and has worked on matters spanning diverse industries such as pharmaceutical drugs, specialty chemicals, manufacturing processes, nanopore sequencing, medical devices, magnetic tape and storage technology, and consumer products. Her litigation experience includes extensive motion practice, claim construction briefing and Markman hearings, defending and taking depositions, and witness preparation for trial testimony. In addition, she has a broad range of experience that extends across other aspects of intellectual property law—including post-grant proceedings; freedom-to-operate, validity, and infringement assessments; due diligence investigations; licensing disputes; domestic and foreign patent procurement; client counseling and opinion work; and portfolio management.

Garret Morin
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Morin's practice is focused primarily on the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of their businesses, including structuring and negotiating various strategic and leveraged acquisitions of public and private targets, going private transactions, divestures, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, equity financings, minority and venture capital investments, restructurings, executive compensation matters, corporate governance and other general corporate matters.

Zak Morozov
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Morozov's practice focuses on tax aspects of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, financings, private equity transactions, and private and public securities offerings.

Qasim Rasool
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Rasool's practice is primarily focused on private equity mergers and acquisitions, and he also represents private equity-owned companies in strategic mergers and acquisitions as well as routine corporate and governance matters.

Dr. Martin A. Schwertmann
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Schwertmann advises clients on the intellectual property and technology aspects of corporate transactions, including carve-outs, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, private equity and venture capital investments, and restructuring and debt financing transactions. In addition to his transactional experience, he also advises clients on issues relating to data privacy (from a U.S. perspective and with respect to European privacy questions), the licensing of intellectual property, and other technology transactions.

Stephen M. Silva
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Silva has represented clients in a wide range of arbitrations, regulatory and governmental investigations, and in state and federal court in matters including employment disputes, accounting, commercial contracts, copyright, energy litigation, insider trading, shareholder litigation, trade secrets and consumer class actions.

Christina A. Wa
was promoted to partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.
Wa is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group and is a member of the San Francisco-based team that focuses on the Real Estate aspects of the firm's Private Equity, M&A, Energy and Infrastructure and Restructuring transactions. She has experience representing real estate private equity and institutional investors in all forms of commercial real estate acquisition, disposition, leasing, and financing across the United States.
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Babak Nikravesh
joined Greenberg Traurig, LLP as shareholder in Silicon Valley.
Nikravesh focuses his practice on investment transactions and international tax planning. He advises institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, public sector pension funds, social security funds, and other global organizations, on investments in the United States and abroad. He structures inbound and outbound investment transactions across diverse asset classes, including funds, co-investments, and direct investments in private equity, infrastructure, venture capital, private credit, and real estate, and works closely with sponsors and managers of investment funds on formation, operational matters, and investments. He also represents universities and endowments on cross-border activities.
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP

Tucker Dowling
joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP as partner in San Diego.
Dowling is a versatile litigator, counselor, and trial attorney. Based out of the firm's San Diego office, his practice focuses on products liability defense, commercial litigation, and business torts across multiple jurisdictions.
Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C.
Jon Charles James
joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as senior counsel in San Francisco.
James' practice includes professional liability defense, construction litigation, personal injury, and premise liability. His has represented physicians, attorneys, directors, real estate professionals and chief executive officers in all phases of litigation in state and federal court. Litigation areas include medical malpractice, medical device, class action, construction defect, product liability, premises liability, landlord-tenant, labor and employment, ERISA, product liability, personal injury, wills and trust litigation and toxic torts. In-house counsel experience includes reviewing, drafting, and analyzing real estate purchase contracts for real estate investment trusts and drafting corporate documents.
Address
580 California Street Suite 1100 , San Francisco 94104 United States
T:
(415) 788-1900
Grindr
Zachary Katz
joined Grindr as general counsel in Los Angeles.
Katz, who will lead the legal and global affairs team, reporting to CEO George Arison, brings more than two decades of experience leading high-performing teams at the intersection of law, technology, and government. He was most recently Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer at Age of Learning.
Hopkins & Carley

Jill K. Ernst
joined Hopkins & Carley as associate in Redwood City.
Ernst focuses her estate planning practice on family wealth transfers, trust administration, probate law, and business transactions. She also has significant experience in commercial litigation. She is a member of the Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Section of the State Bar of California and serves on the South Placer County Estate Planning Council Executive Board. Ernst earned her J.D. from the University of California at Davis and B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Joanne J. Lue
joined Hopkins & Carley as associate in Redwood City.
Lue provides high net worth individuals and families with sophisticated estate plans and wealth transfer strategies, and counsels clients through trust and estate administrations. Lue has been named in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America every year since 2021. She is a member of the State Bar of California and San Mateo County’s Estate Planning Section. Lue, who is fluent in Mandarin, earned her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, LL.M in Taxation from the University of San Francisco, and B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

Suzanne C. Farley
joined Hopkins & Carley as of counsel in Redwood City.
Farley handles estate planning and tax matters for high-net-worth clients, with a particular emphasis on family wealth transfers, audits of estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns, business succession planning, and complex trust and estate administration. Farley is a member of both the Taxation and Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate sections of the State Bar of California. Additionally, she belongs to the San Francisco Bar Association’s Estate Planning and Probate sections and the Marin County Bar Association.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Amanda Rosenberg
joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as partner in Los Angeles.
Rosenberg focuses on the development and financing of renewable energy projects, with an emphasis on tax aspects of energy finance deals, energy tax credits, government incentive programs, energy M&A and domestic and international project finance transactions. Amanda regularly represents sponsors, investors, buyers and sellers and lenders in project finance transactions. She is a Chambers USA and Global-ranked attorney for Projects: Renewables and Alternative Energy.
Signature Resolution

Mary H. Strobel
joined Signature Resolution as neutral in Los Angeles.
Strobel boasts a distinguished career spanning over two decades as a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles, including eight years presiding over the Writs and Receivers department, where she tackled intricate challenges like CEQA and Coastal Act litigation, land use disputes, public employment matters, and more, often adjudicating requests for temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and receivers in civil lawsuits. Her diverse civil experience encompasses seven years as an Individual Calendar judge overseeing various cases, from employment disputes to personal injury suits
Husch Blackwell LLP
Hilary Bricken
joined Husch Blackwell LLP as partner in Los Angeles.
Bricken has more than a decade of experience in guiding clients of all sizes in cannabis licensing, marijuana and industrial hemp regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and transactional matters, including negotiating management services agreements, fee slotting agreements, cultivation supply agreements, and intellectual property licensing agreements; receiverships; dissolution and wind downs; and financing and debt restructuring. Bricken represents national and international cannabis companies, privately held and publicly traded corporations, start-ups, investors, and high-net-worth individuals.
Frost Brown Todd AlvaradoSmith

Madison S. Spach
joined Frost Brown Todd AlvaradoSmith as partner in Santa Ana.
Spach brings more than 30 years of litigation experience in a variety of industries, including real estate and construction. He also advises clients both within and outside bankruptcy proceedings and litigation.
Covington & Burling LLP

Leeanne S. Mancari
joined Covington & Burling LLP as partner in Los Angeles.
Mancari strategically counsels clients on complex discovery issues to form defensible, efficient, and creative solutions for litigations and investigations. She routinely litigates discovery-related issues and appears in state and federal courts. Leveraging her deep knowledge of cutting-edge technology - including AI and machine learning - Mancari formulates efficient and effective workflows for all phases of data preservation, collection, review, and production and has expertise in dealing with extraordinary volumes of documents and complex data sources.
Lagerlof, LLP
Kien C. Tiet
joined Lagerlof, LLP as senior counsel in Pasadena.
Kien focuses his employment law practice on advising employers throughout all stages of the employment relationship, including hiring, contract negotiation, policy drafting, discipline, termination and restrictive covenant enforcement. His litigation experience includes cases involving claims for discrimination, harassment, wage and hour violations, FMLA violations, disability and requests for accommodation in both single-plaintiff and class action matters. Kien regularly handles matters at all levels, from administrative agencies to jury trials to appeals in both state and federal courts. Kien also counsels clients through the mediation process and provides advice regarding best practices to avoid litigation.
Lewis & Llewellyn LLP

Rina Plotkin
joined Lewis & Llewellyn LLP as attorney in San Francisco.
Plotkin represents clients in the technology and life sciences industries in a broad range of high-stakes litigation matters and government investigations. Rina also maintained an active pro bono practice related to immigration law and civil rights, obtaining asylum for applicants and pursuing justice for individuals bringing excessive force and Eighth Amendment claims.
Judicate West

Judge Nita L. Stormes
joined Judicate West as neutral in San Diego.
Stormes served 23 years as a U.S. magistrate judge on the Southern District of California, including five years as presiding U.S. magistrate Judge. During her tenure, she presided over thousands of civil cases as a settlement judge, resolving disputes involving intellectual property, employment discrimination, civil rights, real property, commercial issues, bad faith insurance, personal injuries, and medical malpractice.
Goldberg Segalla
Brandon D.B. Howard
joined Goldberg Segalla as associate in Los Angeles.
Howard counsels and defends a variety of businesses, including major transportation and logistics companies, in motor vehicle- and trucking-related personal injury matters throughout the state of California. He has represented Fortune 500 companies, insurance carriers, transportation companies, utility companies, manufacturers and distributors, retailers, and hospitality companies, acting as chair and co-chair through numerous trials. Howard also draws on experience handling general litigation, product liability, fire, employment and labor, contract disputes, and other commercial matters.
Alternative Resolution Centers

Abbas Hadjin
joined Alternative Resolution Centers as neutral in Los Angeles.
Hadjin is an internationally recognized family law specialist. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the International Academy of Family Lawyers. He will be serving as a consultant and cultural mediator through ARC's Family Law Panel. Hadjian has been a legal analyst and specialist (live television and radio commentator in Farsi) for cases involving Islamic Dowry, Child custody, and Support. He closely follows significant changes in Iranian law and procedures as they affect properties and personal relations. He keeps an updated library of Iranian civil and criminal codes and relevant legal publications in his office. He is in ongoing contact with the legal community in Iran.
Cooley LLP

Rachel Proffitt
was promoted to chief executive officer of Cooley LLP in San Francisco.
Proffitt currently heads Cooley's San Francisco corporate practice and serves on the firm's board of directors. She also co-chairs the firm's legal education committee and has served as a member of the firm's strategic committee and board nominating committee. Proffitt has a robust corporate and securities law practice and is a trusted strategic advisor to public and private companies, as well as venture capital and investment banking firms and other institutional investors, across a broad range of industries. She will be Cooley's first woman CEO.
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP

Jae H. Lee
joined Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP as partner in San Diego.
Lee has experience in all stages of litigation, having represented clients in pre- litigation case assessment, pleadings, fact discovery, expert discovery, motion practice, trial preparation, trial, and post-trial motion practice. He has deposed numerous fact and expert witnesses, and has cross-examined fact and expert witnesses at trial. Lee has briefed and argued dispositive motions, Daubert motions, discovery motions, and evidentiary motions in both state and federal courts. He has maintained an active pro bono practice. Dr. Lee led the expert discovery team in Vietnam Veterans of America v. Central Intelligence Agency, helping to obtain health care benefits for military veterans who were the subjects of chemical and biological warfare experiments. He has been awarded the State Bar of California's Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services multiple times over the course of his career.
Blank Rome LLP
Benjamin M. Wigley
joined Blank Rome LLP as associate in Los Angeles.
Wigley has experience assisting clients in the development of litigation and settlement strategies; drafting discovery and dispositive motions, oppositions, and replies in state courts, federal courts, and arbitration; arguing discovery motions and dispositive motions in state court; drafting state and federal court complaints and arbitration demands; representing clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board; handling all aspects of discovery requests; and representing municipality creditors in Chapter 11 proceedings, including opposition to Trustee's objections to proofs of claim.
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Raghav Krishnapriyan
joined Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP as partner in San Francisco.
Krishnapriyan has technical experience with cases involving small molecule drugs, fusion proteins, computer software, web design technology, and video games. He leverages his technical background to distill complex multifaceted issues in a manner that is understandable to a general audience.
Haynes & Boone LLP

Kevin Crisp
joined Haynes & Boone LLP as partner in Orange County.
Crisp's practice covers a range of commercial litigation matters, including corporate fiduciary duty, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and bankruptcy matters, as well as all manner of business torts and contract disputes.
Arentfox Schiff LLP

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.
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP
Lisa R. Crowley
joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP as partner in San Diego.
Crowley's practice focuses on defending companies and individuals in employment litigation, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and wage and hour violation claims. She also has extensive complex commercial litigation experience, including securities fraud, antitrust, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and intellectual property litigation. She has handled individual, class, and derivative actions, litigated in numerous federal and state courts, and represented a range of clients from individual entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies.
Katz Banks Kumin

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.
Address
150 California St., 16th Floor , San Francisco 94111 United States
T:
(415) 813-3260
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP

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.
JAMS

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.
Judicate West

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.
Norton Rose Fulbright

Alesha Dominique
joined Norton Rose Fulbright as partner in Los Angeles.
Dominique advises clients in connection with trademark, false advertising, unfair competition, copyright, and patent matters before federal district courts, the US International Trade Commission, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She works with clients to acquire, develop, and exploit intellectual property assets and assists with comprehensive trademark clearance, prosecution, and enforcement matters.
T:
(213) 892-9200