Anton (Tony) Handal joined Munck Wllson Mandala LLP as partner in Century City (Los Angeles).

Handal brings more than 40 years of litigation experience serving as first-chair in cases held in federal and state courts throughout the U.S. Handal has tried more than 100 matters and served as lead counsel in more than 170 patent litigation cases.

Adam Fee joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York's Criminal Division who played leading roles in a variety of high-profile prosecutions, Fee represents major international banks, multinational corporations, financial technology companies, boards of directors, CEOs, and others facing government investigations and complex civil litigation, primarily in matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Julia B. Strickland joined Steptoe & Johnson LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Strickland is a market-leading lawyer who leads a substantial team on the defense of class actions and other complex actions for some of the biggest consumer financial services companies. In addition to her decades of experience representing clients through dispositive motion practice, trial and/or appeal, she has a well-deserved reputation for negotiating and structuring settlements of complex disputes and class actions. She is versatile and creative in developing settlement structure options tailored to the client's unique needs. She also routinely represents companies in compliance counseling, regulatory proceedings, and responding to claims by federal and state regulators and enforcement authorities. Julia's client list is a "Who's Who" of financial services companies, including American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Early Warning Services/Zelle, Discover, Citigroup, and Synchrony Bank, among others.

Stephen J. Newman joined Steptoe & Johnson LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Newman handles class action defense and other representative litigation, including multidistrict cases, as well as proceedings launched by government officials on behalf of the general public. He has extensive experience representing companies including internet businesses, retailers, banks, insurers, and manufacturers under California’s Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act. Stephen’s extensive experience extends to data security, consumer privacy, securities fraud, insurance and accountancy, and actuarial malpractice.

Christopher R. Fredrich joined Steptoe & Johnson LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Fredrich focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, with an emphasis on defending financial institutions and other commercial clients in class actions, arbitration, and enforcement matters. He represents banks, digital payment companies, credit card issuers, loan servicers, investors, and technology companies in state and federal court proceedings, at both the trial and appellate levels. He has significant experience litigating claims arising under banking and consumer protection laws, including the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, and Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

Brett Pletcher as of counsel in Silicon Valley

Pletcher has rejoined Gunderson Dettmer as of counsel in the firm's Corporate and Securities practice. Pletcher most recently served as executive vice president, corporate affairs, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Gilead Sciences, Inc. Prior to his 17-plus year tenure at Gilead, Pletcher was a partner at Gunderson Dettmer.

Brian L. Johnsrud was promoted to office managing partner of Duane Morris LLP in Silicon Valley.

Johnsrud has represented companies in their most challenging employment law matters for more than 25 years. When anticipatory and strategic work does not prevent a dispute, he defends companies in multiple forums, from agency proceedings and hearings to arbitration and litigation. Johnsrud defends a wide variety of claims, from whistleblower/retaliation claims to gender, age and race discrimination cases as well as executive contract and compensation matters. He has defended many PAGA actions as well as other wage-and-hour claims. Johnsrud is a frequent adviser on sensitive investigations and executive separations.

John E. Roesenthal joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Rosenthal has represented defendants and plaintiffs in matters involving business disputes, catastrophic personal injury or death, construction defects, and intellectual property as a litigator. He advises clients on regulatory compliance, including international agreements, federal regulations, and state law. He specializes in effectively communicating technical, scientific, and medical issues, often at the core of the defense of his clients. He has extensive experience in every aspect of complex litigation, from discovery to trial and appeal, including settlement negotiations, arbitration, mediation, and administrative hearings, and he has a strong track record for achieving favorable results for his clients.

Javkhlan Enkhbayar joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as associate in San Francisco.

Javkhlan represents clients in business and intellectual property matters, as well as civil litigation and professional liability. As a law student, Javkhlan received the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Certificate and participated in the USPTO Trademark Program as a certified student, providing legal services to parties needing assistance with the registration of trademarks and copyrights. She also participated in the 2019 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition. During her third year of law school, Javkhlan served as a board member for USF Law Review and USF Moot Court Program.

Halim Dhanidina joined Signature Resolution as mediatior/neutral in Los Angeles.

Dhanidina reviewed nearly 1,000 appeals spanning various disciplines, including family, employment, business litigation, and probate. Before his Court of Appeal appointment, Dhanidina served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court and presided over multiple notable cases that significantly impacted both his career and those affected by the verdict.

Landon R. Schwob joined Fisher & Phillips LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Schwob defends employers in a wide range of workplace disputes, from single-party harassment and discrimination claims to large wage and hour class action and California PAGA matters. Landon has mediated and resolved hundreds of cases and has tried cases before judges, juries, arbitrators, and administrative agencies. He also has briefed and argued matters before the California Courts of Appeal.

Stephanie L. Pfaff joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP as partner in San Diego.

Pfaff has over a decade of experience working on various tax and real estate related transactions, primarily focusing on transactional tax planning and real estate tax matters, including all aspects of California documentary transfer tax and property tax, qualified opportunity zones, like-kind exchange transactions, and renewable energy tax credits. In addition, Pfaff's practice includes advising tax-exempt and nonexempt nonprofit organizations and closely held businesses and advising clients in transactional tax and real estate matters for estate planning trusts and family-owned businesses.

Teri Mae Rutledge joined Kennedys Law LLP as special counsel in San Francisco.

Rutledge advises clients on coverage matters, including commercial general liability, professional liability, employment practices liability, director's and officers' liability, and first-party coverages, with a focus on California law. She has litigated at the trial and appellate level in courts throughout the Ninth Circuit and nationwide. In addition, Rutledge has trained clients regarding California claims handling requirements.

Michael W. Melendez joined Kennedys Law LLP as partner in San Francisco.

As an insurance coverage attorney, Melendez focuses his practice on all types of complex insurance coverage, including construction defects, advertising injury, personal injury, professional liability, and general liability. He advises insurers on claims handling and coverage issues, defends bad faith suits, and litigates declaratory relief and contribution actions. He has designed and given several presentations to claims professionals and attorneys on insurance coverage and general legal issues, including claims practices, construction defects, additional insurance, independent counsel, ethics, and bad faith.

Abraham Tabaie joined Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Tabaie's practice focuses on large-scale commercial business litigation for companies on the West Coast, often involving trade secret misappropriation, breach-of-contract, breach of fiduciary duty, false advertising, hacking, data privacy, debt collection, and unfair competition claims. He has represented clients across a range of industries, including technology, real estate, venture fund, private equity, manufacturing, and financial services at both the federal and state levels, as well as in private arbitration.

Josh A. Cohen joined Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Cohen has advised high-profile Fortune 500 companies and senior executives of public and multinational corporations on cases involving a wide range of criminal and regulatory issues. Cohen also has significant experience in litigation involving class actions, shareholder derivative suits, and antitrust matters. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Vice Chair of the College’s Federal Criminal Procedure Committee, He also has experience in civil proceedings in federal and state courts in California and nationwide.

Justine M. Phillips joined Baker & McKenzie LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Phillips focuses her practice on both proactive and reactive cybersecurity and data privacy services, advising clients through the development of practical and actionable programs and solutions to manage data, technology, cyber threats, privacy, security, and digital assets.

Venna Dubai joined University of California, Irvine School of Law as professor in Irvine.

Dubal's research examines the intersection of law, technology, and precarious work. She uses ethnography and critical theory to understand the impact of digital technologies and emerging legal frameworks on the lives of workers, the co-constitutive influences of law and work on society, and the role of law and lawyers in social and labor movements.

Kevin S. Haeberle joined University of California, Irvine School of Law as professor in Irvine.

Haeberle's research has centered on the stock market and other secondary markets for financial instruments. His scholarly work has been twice selected for republication in the Securities Law Review and for presentation at a number of events, including the 2022 Columbia Business Law Review Symposium on the Future of Securities Regulation, the 2020 Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum, and the 2015 George Washington University Center for Law, Economics, and Finance Junior Faculty Workshop. In 2022, he was named program fellow with the Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School Program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets.

Ari Ezra Waldman joined University of California, Irvine School of Law as professor in Irvine.

Waldman is internationally recognized in academic, advocacy, and policy circles for his expertise at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Recognizing the impact of law and technology on marginalized and minoritized groups, he has dedicated his research to understanding the social dynamics of law, particularly with respect to privacy, artificial intelligence, misinformation, and the LGBTQ+ community. Waldman's extensive and award-winning scholarship explores the relationship between technology and power, often through an interdisciplinary lens. His most recent book, "Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power" (Cambridge University Press, 2021), pulls back the curtain on tech companies' manipulation of privacy law.

Adam Cowing joined University of California, Irvine School of Law as professor in Irvine.

Cowing is an assistant clinical professor of law and teaches in the Community and Economic Development Clinic at UCI Law. Before coming to UCI Law, Cowing was a clinical teaching fellow and lecturer at Yale Law School, where he co-taught Yale's Community and Economic Development Clinic.

Heather Tanana joined University of California, Irvine School of Law as professor in Irvine.

Tanana previously served as an Assistant Professor (Research) and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. She has clerked at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah and founded the Indian Law Section of the Utah State Bar Association. Tanana's contributions to the legal field have earned her recognition and accolades from organizations such as the Natural Resources & Environmental Law Section of the Utah State Bar, the Utah Minority Bar Association, and the Environment, Energy, and Resources Section of the American Bar Association.

Megumi Horiuchi joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Horiuchi defends clients against claims involving property development, construction, transportation and trucking, product liability, toxic tort, breach of contract, and general liability. Her construction litigation practice includes the representation of builders, developers, general contractors, engineers, subcontractors, and manufacturers in commercial and residential high-rise, mid-rise, and conversion projects.

Raymond J. Park joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Park is a civil litigation attorney who defends clients against claims involving property development, construction, product liability, toxic tort, environmental, trucking and transportation, breach of contract, subrogation, and general liability. His construction litigation practice includes the representation of builders, developers, general contractors, engineers, subcontractors, and manufacturers in commercial and residential high-rise, mid-rise, and conversion projects.

Dominic J. Nunneri joined Miller Barondess, LLP as associate in Los Angeles.

Nunneri's practice focuses on civil litigation in state and federal courts. He has experience representing defendants and plaintiffs in high-profile disputes, including product liability, business litigation, healthcare litigation, and trust and estates litigation.

Carolina Bustillo joined Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP as associate in San Diego.

Bustillo counsels multinationals on an array of international tax matters, including efficient tax structuring, restructurings, cross-border transactions and IP migrations. Her clients operate in many industries, including life sciences and technology.

Kristina Lawson was promoted to chair of the board and executive committee of the bay area council of Hanson Bridgett LLP in San Francisco.

As Hanson Bridgett's chief executive, Lawson is responsible for all aspects of the firm's strategy and management. She is the first female Managing Partner in Hanson Bridgett's 60+ year history. Over the course of her career, Lawson has been deeply committed to public service. She is a former mayor of the City of Walnut Creek and was appointed by both Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom to serve on the Medical Board of California, where she currently serves as the Board's President.

Frank A. McGuire joined Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP as counsel in Newport Beach.

McGuire was the 26th clerk of the California Supreme Court and former managing attorney of the 1st District Court of Appeal. In these roles, he gained vast insight into how justices think about and decide civil and criminal petitions, briefs, and writs at all appellate levels, as well as the processes and practices of California's appellate courts. In addition to these positions, he also previously served as a chambers attorney on the California Supreme Court, a research attorney for two 1st District justices, and a law clerk on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He also worked for several private law firms.

Robert Bard Smith was promoted to partner of MLG Attorneys at Law in Costa Mesa.

With 18 years of experience in California and Nevada, Smith spent 15 years representing hospitals and medical providers. He then shifted his focus to cases against automotive manufacturers. Smith has taken more than twenty cases to trial, and most recently obtained a $1.5 million settlement in a motorcycle accident case.

Stephen D. Simpson joined Tully Rinckey PLLC as associate in Ladera Ranch.

Simpson spent nearly eight years on active duty as a Marine Corps Judge Advocate Corps., where he focused on litigation and criminal matters. He also has experience serving as a prosecutor, defense counsel, and victim's legal counsel. He still serves as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserves. His practice focuses on military law, one of the firm's core practice groups.