Martha M. Escutia was promoted to vice president state government relations and special counsel of University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Escutia's career at USC began in 2013 when the university recruited her as its vice president of U.S. government relations.

In that role, she was the liaison between USC and elected representatives and public agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government.

Her title and role changed on June 1 because of an internal adjustment of USC's structure.

Now, she will serve as a bridge between USC's Office of General Counsel and state government.

"I'm in charge of monitoring the state government relations. We have a person in Washington D.C. monitoring federal government relations and we have a person here in L.A. monitoring local government relations. Having been a former senator and former assemblyperson, frankly my sweet spot is state government relations. So that's where I can work most effectively and then with a special counsel title, as I indicated earlier, this allows me to cross-pollinate between government relations and the legal work of the Office of General Counsel," she said.

She'll work with USC's general counsel's office to draft amendments to government policies that aim to make them more responsive to the needs of a private non-profit university and its students.

Escutia also serves on the board of directors of the California Emerging Technology Fund, whose mission is to accelerate the deployment of broadband to unserved and underserved communities.

From 1992 to 1998, Escutia served as a state assemblymember and after that, she was a state senator from 1998 to 2006. She is the first woman in California to chair both the assembly and senate judiciary committees, according to a Escutia.

She entered private practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips after working in the state legislature. Before joining USC, she opened a law firm with a fellow former senator, called The Senator's Firm LLP.

Escutia said her favorite aspect of her work at USC is her ability to interact and advocate for students.

"I went to USC on the Cal Grant, as well as a very generous financial aid package from USC. And over 65% close to 70% of our kids at USC are in financial aid, so that issue really touches home for me."

Sarah Brite Evans as named partner in San Diego, CA

Evans focuses on employment law. With her promotion, the firm changes its name from Schwartz Semerdjian Cauley & Moot. She is based in San Diego.

Alison Watkins joined Perkins Coie LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Watkins joined Perkins Coie as partner in its privacy and security practice group after 13 years at Gibson Dunn.

Based in Palo Alto, Watkins represents technology companies in litigation and provides counsel on privacy matters such as compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

"I'm spending most of my time these days helping my clients navigate various privacy and consumer protection laws as they build products and services for their users," she said.

Watkins works with established companies in the social media, augmented reality and virtual reality space.

She describes Perkins as the "ideal firm" for her to build her practice.

"Perkins is a tech-oriented firm with a large well-respected privacy practice. Having a deep bench of colleagues with expertise in not only privacy law, but in representing and counseling technology companies with similar issues just enables me to better serve my clients. And also, you also couldn't find a nicer or more welcoming group of attorneys, even in these days of social distancing."

According to Watkins when she was looking to move, the pandemic was something she considered.

"It was certainly a consideration and I was happy to go to Perkins, which has such a strong reputation as a sensible, financially conservative firm. I trusted that it would be a safe move even in these uncertain times."

Watkins said her favorite part of her practice is being able to work hand-in-hand with engineers and product teams on their projects, something she also feels is a unique aspect of her practice.

"I love working with new technologies. I love talking to the engineers, talking to the product team about what they're trying to achieve and how I can help them also meet both privacy laws and also the privacy protections that they want for their users."

"Not all outside lawyers are interested or have experience working directly with product teams and that is a core part of my practice," she added.

Her first day with Perkins Coie was May 18.

Jeffrey S. Horton Thomas joined Fox Rothschild LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Thomas joined Fox Rothschild's labor and employment department as partner in the Los Angeles office. A litigator with 30 years of experience, Thomas joined Fox Rothschild May 11 after two years at Akerman LLP.

"My focus tends to be defending and counseling employers on fair employment issues, so that includes disability discrimination, accommodation, all forms of alleged discrimination, harassment and retaliation, certainly wage and hour disputes and PAGA actions," said Thomas.

In the last five years, he has broadened his practice to include the entertainment, health care, technology, communications and manufacturing industries.

Much of his recent work has been advising clients on COVID-19 related employment matters.

"Fortunately, so far I have been advising employers, not yet handling any legal claims. But there's obviously a great deal going on in the COVID arena. The pace of the legal developments because of COVID is unlike anything I've experienced in my career so far."

"I've been very busy advising clients on their new obligations to provide paid sick leave that is now specific to people impacted by COVID-19. We have the expanded FMLA rights for people impacted by the virus and that has been a big area of confusion for employers and something that they have needed clarity and counsel on," he said. "I've been doing a great deal of counseling regarding furloughs. Now that we are a little further into the pandemic, clients are struggling with a dozen or more significant issues in deciding how to bring people back safely to work and who to bring back into the work site."

Other recent matters include disability discrimination cases and alleged failure to accommodate disabilities, as well as matters related to wage and hour claims.

Thomas' decision to change firms was based on a desire to grow his practice in California and nationally, he said.

"Fox Rothschild has a very respected labor and employment practice group nationally and in particular has a very robust practice in San Francisco and in Los Angeles. Fox is an excellent platform for me to expand my reach," he explained. "It is universally respected along with other top tier firms and an opportunity to join Fox is something I feel very fortunate about."

Thomas said his favorite aspect of his practice is interaction with clients, whether they are in-house counsel or business leaders.

"People who run companies genuinely want to do a good job. They want to build a business. Oftentimes that's their dream," he said. "If I can help them solve a problem in the employment arena so that they can get back to doing what they're doing, or I can prevent the problem in the first place, that's what gets me excited. That's a good day and that makes me happy."

Howard Camhi joined Michelman & Robinson, LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Camhi has 30 years of experience representing clients in complex bankruptcy cases, corporate restructuring and reorganizations. He is based in Los Angeles.

Scott P. DeVries joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as special counsel in San Francisco.

DeVries has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth's insurance coverage practice as special counsel in San Francisco from Winston & Strawn.

DeVries is a former chair of Winston & Strawn's insurance recovery practice. His first day at Hunton Andrews Kurth was May 11. He is a trial lawyer with over three decades of experience.

"My practice has been primarily an insurance recovery practice and I've been doing that largely since the late 1980s. I represent a wide range of businesses with a wide range of insurance issues. It runs the gamut from counseling at the one end through submission of claims and proof of loss through litigation and trial," said DeVries.

He has also represented companies such as Aerojet-General Corp. and Hyundai Motor America. He has also represented businesses in the manufacturing and steel sectors as well as the financial and international retail industries.

In light of the pandemic, a majority of his recent work has included helping clients like restaurants, auto dealerships, law firms and manufacturers with insurance issues, according to DeVries.

After 13 years with Winston & Strawn, DeVries said he decided to move after the firm made the decision to get out of the policyholder's side of the business and represent insurance companies.

"...From a personal practice perspective, [Hunton Andrews Kurth] represents policyholders not insurance companies, so there are no conflicts. They have a 27 attorneys in the insurance recovery group, which gives incredible breadth and depth on all things insurance, and they are extraordinarily client focused, it's first and foremost..," he said.

He was additionally impressed by the firm's management and of the way the San Francisco office's cross disciplinary teams and practices dovetailed nicely with his practice.

"I come to businesses [when] they have extended or are extending considerable losses.. I am there and my practice is there to help them recover those losses and that's pretty cool.."

He added that he also enjoys working with clients across different sectors.

"There is a freshness to seeing all these different operations taking place and learning what I need to learn to give [clients] the services they need for their particular niche."

Raphael D. Javid as founding partner in Los Angeles

Javid founded Javid Trial Firm after 20 years at BD&J. The firm specializes in complex personal injury litigation. He is based in Los Angeles.

Jeffrey F. Webb joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Paul Hastings LLP.

Webb joined Paul Hastings' employment law department in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He joined the firm as partner after seven years with Ropes & Gray.

He said he decided to join Paul Hastings because of its outstanding roster of blue-chip clients, the challenging work the firm handles and its recognition as the top tier employment firm in California.

"I talked with a small handful of other elite firms, but concluded that the Paul Hastings platform and the depth and breadth of their employment practice were just hard to match. In the course of the last year, my practice has taken me to New York, D.C., London and the Bay Area and Paul Hastings is very strong in all of those markets, so it was a really good fit," said Webb.

As an employment litigator, Webb's work primarily focuses on disputes with highly compensated workers, as well as class actions and collective actions involving discrimination, wage and hour issues, the WARN Act and other employee benefit matters.

His work involves the representing companies in the financial services, life sciences, telecommunications, entertainment and technology industries.

With move, Webb expects his practice to include more work in the entertainment industry now that he will be based in Los Angeles instead of Boston and San Francisco.

For Webb his favorite part about his practice is representing clients, finding the best arguments and winning, adding that what makes his practice unique is the challenging work he handles.

"I'd say the practice at Ropes and now at Paul Hastings is different in that it focuses on client's most challenging work, the matters that they're most concerned about...matters that are of the utmost importance to the client and that makes them all the more interesting."

In the past, Webb has served as a senior government regulator in Massachusetts, where he oversaw a team of prosecutors and civil enforcement attorneys that handled compliance with employment laws, and as a senior in house counsel at Fox Entertainment Group. He served as vice president of legal affairs for Fox from 1998 to 2001.

Charles H. Samel joined Stoel Rives LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Samel joins the firm's litigation practice group. He focuses his practice on complex commercial and antitrust litigation and has over 30 years of experience. He is based in San Francisco.

Gregory K. Jones joined Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Jones advises lenders, creditors' committees, debtors, assignees for the benefit of creditors, purchasers of assets in bankruptcy cases, lessors and defendants in preference and fraudulent transfer lawsuits. He is based in Los Angeles.

Gregory P. Barchie was promoted to partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP in Los Angeles.

Barchie's practice includes litigating commercial, entertainment, real estate, employment and intellectual property disputes in federal and state courts. He also has experience in arbitrations. He is based in Los Angeles.

Amir A. Torkamani was promoted to partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP in Los Angeles.

Torkamani's practice is focused on commercial, entertainment, real estate, employment and intellectual property litigation. He is based in Los Angeles.

Sonya D. Goodwin was promoted to partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP in Los Angeles.

Goodwin advises clients on employment issues including wage and hour issues, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract. She is based in Los Angeles.

Kimberly O. Branscome joined Dechert LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Branscome has joined Dechert as managing partner of the Los Angeles office.

She joins the firm's product liability and mass torts practice after six years at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Before she was approached by Dechert, Branscome said she knew of the firm's product liability and mass torts practice co-chairs, Mark Cheffo and Sheila Birnbaum in New York, by reputation.

"[T]he opportunity to come to Dechert was really a unique chance for me to join a very well established, well respected product practice, but also to be able to build something of my own because Dechert had asked me to build and develop the Los Angeles office, but also the West Coast products practice. And so, it's an opportunity for me to be able to develop something, which is always exciting, but to do it in a very established platform in the area in which I practice."

Branscome represents clients in many industries including pharmaceutical, consumer products, and oil and gas. Most recently her work has
ncluded the Johnson & Johnson talc litigation.

As managing partner, Branscome will work to grow the office.

"I'd like to strengthen our practice out here and continue to work with clients that I've worked with in the past, but also build relationships with other existing Dechert clients."

Her first day at Dechert was April 24. She came to the firm with partner Jay Bhimani, counsel Benjamin Sadun and associate Allie Ozurovich.

Christopher K. Wong joined Atheria Law as associate in San Francisco.

Chris advises insurers in connection with errors and omissions policies issued to a variety of professionals including but not limited to architects, engineers, and other design professionals. In addition to professional liability insurance, Chris advises both domestic and London-based insurers in connection with general liability policies. He gained significant litigation and insurance coverage experience as an associate at a prominent local insurance coverage firm in the Bay Area. Chris received his J.D. from the Chapman University, Fowler School of Law in 2014, and his B.A. from the University of California, Irvine.