Daniel V. Kitzes was promoted to partner of Fox Rothschild LLP in Los Angeles.

Kitzes represents large and small businesses in a wide array of labor and employment matters. A proficient litigator, Kitzes has experience defending Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), class action, wage & hour, whistleblower, discrimination and harassment cases, as well as contract and breach of warranty matters. His practice also includes representing companies in administrative hearings, including before the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Ketul D. Patel was promoted to partner of Fox Rothschild LLP in Los Angeles.

Patel's practice focuses on preventative counseling and defending employers in both state and federal courts through trial. Patel focuses on cases involving whistleblower complaints, restrictive covenants, wage and hour, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, discrimination, statutory leave, retaliation and breach of contract claims. He also represents employers in complex wage and hour class actions and PAGA representative actions.

David Lee was promoted to chair, litigation department of Nossaman in San Francisco.

Lee focuses his practice on intellectual property matters, including copyright and trademark claims, trade secrets and internet domain name disputes. Lee also handles business litigation matters involving contract claims, unfair business practices and other corporate disputes. He provides risk management and general counsel to startups and growing companies in multiple areas, including intellectual property strategies, risk avoidance analysis, contract negotiations and strategies. His clients include technology companies, public entities, manufacturers and business owners.

Ben Rubin was promoted to chair, environment & land use group of Nossaman in Irvine.

Rubin focuses on helping developers, public agencies, landowners, and corporate clients on a variety of complex land use and environmental matters. He counsels clients on matters dealing with the Federal and State Endangered Species Act, the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act, the California Hazardous Waste Control Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Coastal Act, the California Permit Streamlining Act, and the Federal and State Constitutions. Rubin was a law clerk to the U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the Central District. He also served as an intern for U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Walsh.

Simon Adams was promoted to co-chair, real estate group of Nossaman in San Francisco.

Adams handles leasing transactions and construction contract matters for a variety of commercial, retail and industrial spaces, including professional offices, technology laboratories, data centers, telecom towers and brick and mortar stores. He also advises on acquisitions, dispositions and sale and leaseback arrangements and provides counsel on financing issues. He counts among his clients major information technology and telecommunications companies, pharmaceutical corporations, medical insurance providers, pension finance firms and banks.

Jill Jaffe was promoted to co-chair, real estate group of Nossaman in San Francisco.

Jaffe specializes in disputes involving real estate, public procurements and infrastructure projects. She has particular experience counseling clients on myriad aspects of public contracting and procurement disputes and litigation claims on behalf of project owners, including defending bid protest challenges and litigating construction claims. She is experienced in all phases of litigation in both federal and state courts, including pre-litigation government investigations, pleadings, e-Discovery, dispositive motions, mediation and trial. Jill has successfully obtained verdicts for her clients as a lead trial attorney, including for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Allison Callaghan was promoted to co-chair, employment group of Nossaman in Sacramento.

Callaghan focuses her practice on employment litigation and counseling. She has a proven track record defending employers in wage-and-hour class and PAGA representative actions and single-plaintiff harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits. Allison has successfully represented clients in all phases of litigation, including at trial, as well as in administrative and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. She also regularly advises both public entities and private companies on a broad array of employment and management issues and conducts workplace trainings and investigations.

Melissa Borrelli was promoted to co-chair, healthcare group of Nossaman in Sacramento.

Borrelli provides legal services and solutions to payors, health systems, providers and others in the health, managed care and health insurance industry. Melissa offers legal counsel to commercial, discount, specialized (including EAP, psychological, dental, vision and chiropractic/acupuncture) and government-based health plans, including Medi-Cal, Medicare and Marketplace. In addition, she advises health plans and risk-bearing providers on licensing, contracting and other matters pertaining to the laws and standards of managed care and advises on issues pertaining to compliance and regulatory affairs, auditing/operational assessment, privacy and information security, enterprise risk management, digital health, corporate governance, contracts, process improvement and due diligence.

Kathryn Eidmann was promoted to vice president chief of litigation and legal programs of Public Counsel in Los Angeles.

Eidmann has litigated major cases in the areas of education equity, children's rights, gender discrimination, criminalization of poverty, immigrants' rights, housing and homelessness, and the rights of low-wage workers. She has particular expertise in litigation and advocacy to reform education, child welfare, and other systems to address the needs of children impacted by trauma

Richard H. Rahm joined Littler Mendelson P.C. as shareholder in San Francisco.

With over three decades of experience, he counsels and represents employers primarily in complex wage-and-hour class action litigation and jury trials, state and federal appeals, and arbitrations, Rahm has extensive experience in the transportation sector, including representing trucking companies, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers.

Douglas A. Thompson joined Snell & Wilmer LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Thompson defends class action litigation matters and represents financial institutions and businesses in related regulatory investigations. Throughout his career, he has represented clients in more than 250 putative class actions and has been admitted pro hac vice in numerous federal district courts. He assists clients in mitigating emerging regulatory and litigation risks and collaborates with clients to champion inclusion, innovation, and thought leadership initiatives.

Glenn D. Smith joined Rimon, P.C. as partner in Los Angeles.

Smith advises issuers and bankers in capital market transactions, funds on investments, and portfolio matters, as well as public and private companies in capital raising and M&A. He also counsels' clients on employment matters, board structure and composition, and new business initiatives. He has wide experience helping clients in a number of industries, including aerospace, technology, life sciences, hospitality, health care, and manufacturing.

Derek A. Ridgeway joined Rimon, P.C. as partner in San Francisco.

Ridgway is a seasoned commercial real estate and construction attorney with more than 25 years of experience. Ridgway advises in-house corporate counsel, corporate real estate executives and principals in domestic and international real estate transactions. Several of his transactions have been listed in the San Francisco Business Times Top Real Estate Deals. In conjunction with his real estate work, he negotiates and documents joint venture transactions, real estate syndicates, limited partnerships and other real estate holding vehicles for the development and operation of real estate assets and communities.

Mahru Madjidi was promoted to shareholder of Shegerian & Associates in Los Angeles.

Madjidi has built a reputation for her diligence, tenacity, and commitment to her clients. She has a keen understanding of the complexities of employment law, which has allowed her to secure significant settlements and verdicts on behalf of her clients. Her promotion to shareholder reflects her significant contributions to the firm and the legal community.

Emily M. Weissenberger joined Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP as counsel in San Francisco.

Weissenberger is an accomplished trial attorney focused on defending clients against product liability, mass tort, environmental and complex litigation claims in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products fields.

Robert C. Briseño joined Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth as shareholder in Newport Beach.

Briseño works on a wide range of real estate transactional matters including acquisition, disposition, development and leasing of commercial, residential and resort properties. He represents developers in the acquisition, disposition and development of various types of projects - including office buildings, hotels, industrial properties, retail centers, apartments, and undeveloped land - from negotiations through drafting of contracts, due diligence and closing.

Alston L. Lew was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco.

Lew represents clients in matters related to business law, professional liability and insurance defense. He brings a wealth of knowledge in variety of matter types including construction defect; trade secret, trademark and copyright disputes; class actions; product liability; toxic tort; privacy; personal injury; insurance defense; and bad faith insurance claims. He has also helped to defend clients related to federal government (DOJ and BSEE) subpoenas for possible regulatory and criminal violations.

Claire E. Bellefleur was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco & Seattle.

Bellefleur's primary practice consists of representing fiduciaries and beneficiaries in Washington State's Title 11 rules and California State's Probate Code, including trust and probate litigation, trust and probate administration and conservatorships. She develops personalized estate plans, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, status of property agreements and other end of life documents, for individuals and families. She has also defended lay fiduciaries against breach of duty claims and mitigated provable damages.

Adrian P. Sacharski was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco.

Sacharski counsels clients in a variety of matters related to business law, intellectual property, professional liability, and all forms of civil litigation. Adrian has significant trial experience in real property litigation, commercial and residential construction defects and engineering.

Will S. Chuchawat joined Baker & Hostetler LLP in Los Angeles.

Chuchawat is a notable mergers and acquisitions lawyer who has closed hundreds of deals across multiple industries. He represents private equity and venture capital funds and public and private companies in numerous industries, including technology, health care, consumer products, business services, industrials, aerospace and defense, life sciences, financial services, and media.

JR Lanis joined Baker & Hostetler LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Lanis serves as outside counsel to numerous public companies, investment banks and registered investment companies and is experienced in listing and reporting for OTC, Nasdaq and NYSE-listed issuers. He represents strategic and private equity and family office-backed buyers and sellers of businesses and product lines. His clients include publicly traded and privately held companies and investors in a variety of industries, including food and beverage, technology, financial services, hospitality and life sciences.

Dale Chang joined Russ August & Kabat as partner in Los Angeles.

Chang represents clients in high-stakes patent and trade secrets litigation, with a focus on trial work. He has successfully litigated cases in every major patent venue across the US, including district courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), both as plaintiff and defense counsel.

Wyatt Donen joined Custodio & Dubey LLP in Los Angeles.

Donen is an associate attorney in the Consumer Protection division.

Dayan Rosen joined McGuireWoods LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Rosen's practice focuses on debt financing, primarily in the middle and lower-middle markets. Dayan concentrates on acquisition financings, asset-based lending, a broad variety of cash flow-based debt financings, including first and second-lien debt, unitranche financings, mezzanine debt, and others, and financings based on annualized recurring revenue.

Matthew Vazin joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP as associate in San Diego.

Vazin represents clients in a wide range of employment matters including providing advice on compliance with federal and state laws, drafting handbooks, severance agreements, onboarding documents, offer letters, nondisclosure agreements, and termination and release letters. His employment law experience also includes taking depositions, conducting discovery, drafting demurrers and motions to strike, and handling communications with clients and opposing counsel. In addition, he has experience filing new LLCs and Corporations in California and Delaware for clients, including entity formation, drafting of bylaws, new business documents, and operating agreements.

Judge James L. Crandall joined Judicate West as neutral in Santa Ana.

Crandall is available as a mediator, arbitrator and private judge for matters statewide. Appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2012 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, Crandall served for more than a decade on the Orange County Superior Court bench. He received national attention for his 2018 ruling that the State of California's sanctuary immigration law infringed on Huntington Beach's local control as a charter city. Prior to his bench appointment, Crandall was a partner at Crandall, Wade and Lowe for 36 years, where he defended insurance companies in excess liability and bad faith claims. In addition to trying 164 cases to verdict, he also took roughly 800 cases to mediation.

Rudy Kim joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Kim has over 20 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes IP and technology-related litigation involving patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and complex commercial claims in federal district and appellate courts, in private arbitration, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). He has also successfully tried criminal jury cases with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and regularly teaches Trial Advocacy classes at Stanford Law School.

David S. Killoran joined Dykema as member in Los Angeles.

Killoran has over three decades of experience as trial and appellate counsel to some of the world's foremost automotive companies. He has handled hundreds of high-exposure cases against some of the country's top plaintiff lawyers and he has experience as national coordinating counsel for one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers. Killoran's practice includes a wide range of product liability cases involving a variety of alleged defects in electronic devices, mechanical systems, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, along with matters stemming from warnings, trade secrets, supplier indemnity, class actions, and consumer fraud. He also counsels clients on product safety, risk management, and commercial law matters.

Brad H. Pace was promoted to partner of Kennedys Law LLP in San Francisco.

Pace has extensive experience handling admiralty and maritime litigation, as well as aviation litigation, and is involved in all aspects of the process from intake to resolution. His background in the maritime industry as a ship captain, officer, engineer, and pilot, enables him to deeply understand the issues his clients face and provide them with solutions tailored to their situations. He also advises clients in a wide range of insurance matters, including marine insurance and reinsurance, and insurance coverage. In addition, Pace handles a wide variety of yacht transactional work.

Andrew F. Kirtley was promoted to partner of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP in Burlingame.

Kirtley spent several years as an attorney in the District of Columbia, where he worked at a tenants' rights law firm, the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, and a boutique law firm specializing in federal environmental and civil rights litigation.

Brook T. Barnes joined Snell & Wilmer LLP as partner in San Diego.

Barnes counsels and represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment litigation including claims for improper wage deductions, failure to pay wages, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide meal periods and rest breaks, misclassification of employees, inaccurate wage statements, commission calculations, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims, class actions, wrongful termination, and retaliatory and discriminatory employment actions.

Heather Marie Vigil was promoted to office managing shareholder of Littler Mendelson P.C. in Irvine.

Vigil will also maintain her litigation practice that is focused on international employment law, wage and hour matters, and privacy and data security issues. She defends employers in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and administrative hearings before agencies such as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Vigil also regularly conducts employee and management training sessions and counsels small, medium-sized, and multinational employers on workplace investigations, terminations, disciplinary actions, and other issues arising under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and California Labor Code.

Xiaofan (Frank) Yang, Ph.D. was promoted to partner of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP in San Diego.

Yang provides comprehensive IP strategic counseling to public and private biotechnology, pharmaceutical, digital health and medical device companies. His patent counseling and prosecution experience creates and protects IP assets as primary value propositions for growth enterprises in all stages of business, from proof of concept to clinical development, regulatory approval and product launch. He is also experienced in conducting due diligence in complex venture financings, public offerings, partnering/licensing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. He has a global client base, including companies and investors in U.S., Europe, and Asia. After obtaining his B.S. in polymer chemistry and PhD in organic synthesis, he worked as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry for more than four years before becoming a patent practitioner in 2006.

Rachel Reddick joined Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP as attorney investigator in Monterey.

Reddick specializes in creating healthy workplace and school environments by delivering thorough and impartial investigations and by providing trainings, climate surveys and assessments on employment-related issues, such as harassment prevention and labor laws compliance. Prior to joining the private sector, she managed a team practicing before the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and oversaw investigations on one of the largest criminal cases in U.S. history. Additionally, she served in the U.S. Congress as a Defense Fellow and also worked for a congressperson sitting on the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, where she assisted in several high-profile congressional investigations. Early on in her career, Reddick spent time in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps, where she litigated at the trial and appellate level, and served as general counsel to commanding officers both onshore and at sea, advising on employee matters and overseeing investigations.

Judge Claudia J. Silbar joined Judicate West as neutral in Santa Ana.

Appointed by then-Governor Gray Davis in 2001, Judge Silbar served on the Superior Court bench for 21 years, almost exclusively in family law. She was named "Judge of the Year" by the Orange County Bar Association's Family Law Section in 2020 and in 2007.

Erik Roper joined Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP as attorney investigator in Sacramento.

Roper focuses on conducting fair, thorough, and impartial workplace investigations to support organizations' ability to maintain healthy, productive work environments and avoid lawsuit disruptions. His legal expertise includes handling a wide variety of employment law matters, primarily those involving claims of discrimination against protected classes, whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination, and defamation. Before joining OIG, he counseled and represented plaintiffs in employment lawsuits, and he also spent time enforcing the federal Clean Water Act as an environmental attorney. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Roper served in the U.S. Army as a financial specialist.