Zak Megeed was promoted to partner of Covington & Burling LLP in San Francisco.

Megeed advises life sciences companies in complex collaborations and other strategic transactional matters spanning the full range of discovery, development and commercialization activities.

Brandon Michael Palmen was promoted to partner of Covington & Burling LLP in Palo Alto.

Palmen advises clients on their commercial and intellectual property transactions, drafting and negotiating agreements with key customers, suppliers, and technology development partners, complex data and intellectual property license agreements, and agreements associated with technology-focused mergers, acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, and spinoffs.

Jon A MacDonald joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as of counsel in Orange County.

MacDonald's practice covers a wide range of commercial real estate transactions, including advising developers and investors in connection with a broad array of development projects, portfolio and single asset acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, financing, and restructuring across asset classes, including retail, office, hotels/resorts, multifamily, and mixed-use projects throughout the United States.

Anne L. Rauch joined Berding & Weil LLP as partner in San Diego.

Rauch has extensive experience in the areas of appellate and civil litigation with special focus on common interest development law, construction defect disputes, homeowner association disputes, real estate law, insurance, and contract disputes.

Oswald Cousins joined Latham & Watkins LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Cousins provides high-level advice and counseling on a wide range of employment and labor law matters, including trade secrets and restrictive covenants, wage-and-hour compliance, discrimination and harassment allegations, whistleblower and retaliation claims, individual employee separations, reductions in force, and employment aspects of transactions. He has tried cases to verdict in federal and state court, as well as in arbitrations and administrative proceedings.

Adam S. Goldberg joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Goldberg advises clients in a wide variety of disputes and investigations, including international and government investigations, international arbitrations, securities litigation and counseling on the regulatory aspects of business transactions. He also represents clients in complex business and intellectual property disputes and has litigated at both the trial court and appellate court levels.

Hailey Lennon joined Brown Rudnick LLP as partner in Orange County.

Lennon provides clients with front-end advice on regulatory requirements related to fintech and crypto companies, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Matthew L. Friedrich joined Latham & Watkins LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Friedrich represents private equity investors, operators, and developers on a range of complex commercial real estate transactions and financings. He also advises on ground-up construction, programmatic and single-asset joint ventures, and acquisitions, sales, and financings across asset classes and geographies.

Lauren N. Moore joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP as partner in Los Angeles and Washington D.C..

Moore's practice will focus on matters at the intersection of law, business and public policy. She has significant experience with crisis management, strategic counseling, and government and internal investigations.

Noah Bialos joined Perkins Coie LLP as senior counsel in San Francisco.

Bialos develops compliance strategies that are informed by business priorities, human rights, and operational constraints. He works with a range of technology companies--including social media, messaging, search, gaming, file sharing, e-commerce, and cloud hosting providers--to develop pragmatic and principled risk mitigation measures across a range of policies and products.

Cherie S. Raidy joined Greenberg Traurig as shareholder in Orange County.

Raidy represents large corporations, financial institutions, and real estate companies and focuses her traditional practice on finance, commercial lending, and real estate and business transactions. She regularly advises on the acquisition and disposition of hotels, office buildings, tenant headquarter leases, and other real property projects, in addition to commercial loan documentation, multifamily lending, synthetic leases, corporate trust, project finance , real estate finance, foreclosure, and workouts and lender side consumer finance litigation.

Raidy's experience includes corporate negotiations and drafting of management buyout agreements, as well as asset and stock purchase agreements. She also represents private equity funds engaged in the acquisition of distressed companies.

John-Paul Motley as partner in charge

Cooley's second Los Angeles office opened in August. Their new location is in downtown at the Wells Fargo Center at 355 S. Grand Ave.

Karen Firstenberg joined Venable LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Firstenberg provides strategic counsel to life sciences companies on product liability, toxic torts, and compliance matters. She represents pharmaceutical, biotech, materials science, and medical device manufacturers, designers, and distributors, including Fortune 500 and 300 companies. She has led nationwide mass tort drug and device litigation in both state and federal courts, winning favorable jury verdicts in multi-million-dollar claims.

Frances O'Meara joined Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman as partner in Los Angeles.

O'Meara concentrates her practice on errors and omissions defense for attorneys, accountants, architects, insurance agents, real estate brokers, appraisers, doctors, and nurses. She is certified by the California State Bar as a Certified Legal Malpractice Specialist. She advises professionals and law firms on legal professional and ethical issues, issues relating to risk management and loss control, and cyber security and data privacy risks.

Adam B. Levine was promoted to partner of CaseyGerry in San Diego.

Levine is a key member of the firm's serious personal injury team. He focuses his practice on product defect, premises, auto and aviation cases.

David Owen joined Benesch as partner in San Francisco.

Owen focuses his practice on advising investment funds and investment advisers in connection with fund structuring and formation, product structuring, transactions and ongoing operational needs, as well as regulatory, compliance and other securities law matters.

Ziyong "Sean" Li joined Benesch as partner in San Francisco.

Li focuses his practice on technology and intellectual property litigation and dispute resolution before both federal and state courts, arbitration tribunals, and government agencies, such as the United States International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Judge David De Alba joined Judicate West as neutral in Sacramento.

De Alba served on the Sacramento County Superior Court for 21 years, presiding over personal injury and wrongful death, employment, professional negligence, products liability and civil rights matters. He has served assignments on the juvenile delinquency, probate, felony and civil courts and the complex and settlement conference departments. Prior to his bench appointment, De Alba spent the first 22 years of his career with the California Office of the Attorney General, handling both civil and criminal trials and appeals.

David Frankenberger as managing partner

Frankenberger's practice includes complex state court and federal court litigation involving motor vehicle accident defense; trucking defense; complex personal injury; premises liability; product liability, agricultural litigation, and construction defect liability for both subcontractors and developers.

Michael Lehman as partner

Lehman has practiced civil litigation for more than 30 years and is a member of ABOTA. His trial experience includes representing private and public entities and individuals in cases involving torts, employment law, products liability, professional negligence, and civil rights, in both state and federal courts.

Brett Runyon as partner

Runyon has successfully defended his clients in a variety of cases, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in mass tort actions, complex industrial fire cases, environmental and industrial contamination cases, inverse condemnation claims and catastrophic loss, and construction defect.

Carol Ann Seita as partner

Seita is experienced in matters involving personal injury, premises liability, employment law, subrogation defense, products liability, property damage, and construction defect. Her prior experience also includes working for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Fresno in various capacities, including in the Administrative Division, the Victim Witness Unit and the Criminal Unit.

Ryan Sandrock joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Sandrock is co-chair of the firm's Antitrust Practice. He will focus on litigation, transactions, investigations, and counseling at the nexus of competition or consumer protection.

Rachel A. Garcia joined Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel as associate in San Jose.

Garcia focuses on litigation in all areas of employment law, including wage and hour, terminations, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and trade secrets. Her practice also focuses on employment counseling.

James Lu joined Sidley Austin LLP as partner in Century City.

James Lu joins Sidley as a partner in the firm's life sciences, corporate and ECVC practices. Lu focuses on representing leading companies and their venture capital and private equity investors, especially in the life sciences and technology sectors. He also has extensive experience advising clients on private and public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions, especially cross-border transactions involving multiple jurisdictions.