Recent Placements

Selected partner and group transactions handled by Sabina Lippman, Mark Jungers, Divya Bala, Vijay Luthra and Jeff Conta in: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Caracas, Greater China and other select legal markets.

2019 Placements:

Brien Wassner, co-head of Shearman’s Private Equity practice, joins Sidley Austin

Brien Wassner has joined Sidley Austin in New York as a partner in its rapidly expanding private equity practice. Brien represents private equity funds, hedge funds, infrastructure funds, and other financial institutions and institutional investors on a wide array of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions. Those included leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, divestitures, carve-outs, and other corporate matters.

Andrew Sagor joins Baker McKenzie as the Co-Chair of Leveraged Finance

Andrew Sagor joins Baker McKenzie as the Co-Chair of Leveraged Finance in North America from Kirkland & Ellis in New York. Andrew’s practice mainly focuses on structuring and negotiating market-shaping private equity and debt financing transactions. Andrew routinely advises leading private equity firms and their portfolio companies, privately held and publicly traded Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds, alternative asset managers, lenders and other financial institutions on a wide variety of large cap and middle market financing transactions, including major leveraged buyouts, domestic and cross-border acquisitions and other leveraged financings, senior secured debt, high yield, bridge and mezzanine financings, workouts and restructurings, asset-based facilities, purchases of distressed debt and general corporate finance matters.

Skadden's Head of M&A in Silicon Valley Joins Baker McKenzie

Leif King joins Baker McKenzie from Skadden, Arps, where he served as head of that firm's corporate/M&A practice in Silicon Valley. A seasoned M&A lawyer, Leif represents clients in a wide variety of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, activist investor situations, recapitalizations, spin-offs and strategic investments. Leif has been featured as a Dealmaker of the Week and Dealmaker of the Month in The American Lawyer, and he has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business every year since 2008. The Daily Journal has repeatedly named him among the Top 100 Lawyers in California and previously recognized him as one of the Top 20 Under 40 lawyers in the state, among numerous other recognitions. He has received two California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year awards from California Lawyer magazine and The Daily Journal. He also has repeatedly been selected for inclusion in IFLR1000 and The Best Lawyers in America and was recognized in 2016 as a BTI Client Service All-Star.

Glenn Vanzura & Jason Linder join Mayer Brown in Los Angeles from Irell & Manella

Glenn Vanzura focuses his practice on securities class action and derivative litigation, SEC investigations and enforcement actions, complex business litigation, white collar criminal defense and internal corporate investigations. He has represented corporations, directors, officers and other individuals in some of the country’s most significant bet-the-company litigations across a variety of industries, including the biopharmaceutical, semiconductor, casino gaming, smartphone application, entertainment, manufacturing, and restaurant industries.

Jason Linder advises corporations and executives on government and regulatory actions, internal investigations and corporate compliance matters, and white collar criminal defense. At Irell he led the Global Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense practice. His focus is representing companies and individuals before the US Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Offices around the country and the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other US and international law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He also represents clients in matters involving data privacy and security, cross-border civil disputes, international arbitration, and class action and high stakes litigation.

Jonathan Ko joins Paul Hastings from Skadden Arps

Jonathan Ko joins Paul Hastings from Skadden Arps in Los Angeles. Jonathan represents public and private companies, investment banks, and private equity firms and other institutional investors in capital market transactions in various industries including financial services, gaming, hospitality, real estate, retail, and technology. These transactions include IPO’s, follow on and secondary offerings, public and private offerings of high yield debt, investment grade debt and equity securities.

Paul Kim joins Sheppard Mullin from McDermott Will & Emery in Seoul

Paul Kim joins Sheppard Mullin from MWE in Seoul. Paul advises clients on M&A, PE, venture capital, restructuring, multi-jurisdictional disputes and general corporate matters. He has more than 20 years of experience representing a diverse range of clients operating in numerous industries and in many countries. His Clients include industrial and manufacturing companies, commercial and investment banks and other financial institutions, and private equity funds and investment managers. Paul has particularly broad experience representing Asian, European and U.S. clients in complex multi-jurisdictional transactions, restructurings and other matters.

Perrie Weiner and Ed Totino join Baker McKenzie as partners in Los Angeles

Perrie will join as head of the firm's Los Angeles office and co-head of the firm's securities law practice. Perrie is listed in Chambers USA, Who's Who in America and The Legal 500 United States as one of the leading litigation lawyers in the United States. Law360 has named him among its 10 Most Admired Securities Attorneys, describing him as "a brilliant litigator who has established himself as a go-to advocate for hedge funds facing complex suits and CEOs squaring off against the US Securities and Exchange Commission." Ed focuses his practice on class actions, complex commercial litigation and securities litigation, and has led a number of privacy and TCPA class actions.

Jason Weiss joins Drinker Biddle & Reath from the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Jason joins Drinker from the FBI Field Office in Los Angeles. He served as a FBI Certified Adjunct Instructor in the Cyber Field Instructor Program, Digital Forensics investigations, Digital Evidence Identification and Collection and Digital Evidence Extraction. Jason taught digital evidence recovery to over 1000 FBI Evidence Response Team Members as well as how to collect Digital Evidence in a Hazardous (Hazmat) Environment. Jason has taught over 50 Cyber and Computer Forensics courses domestically and internationally (Philippines, Nigeria, Ukraine, Ghana and Indonesia) to FBI, outside law enforcement agencies, and private sector partners.

Sheng Wu joins Mayer Brown from DLA Piper

Sheng joins Mayer from DLA Piper in Hong Kong. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, especially China-related M&A’s and M&A involving regulated entities. He represents both Chinese and foreign clients in cross border acquisitions into China and outside China. He also has a specific focus in advising investors and companies on investment opportunities relating to the insurance and healthcare sectors.

David Simonds joins Hogan Lovells from Akin Gump

David Simonds joins Hogan Lovells from Akin Gump. David has more than 25 years of experience representing debtors, official and informal creditors’ committees, secured and unsecured creditors, asset purchasers and other parties in interest in Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, cross-border insolvencies and transactions. He recently served as lead counsel to the owner of films and associated rights that were the subject of a complex licensing/distribution arrangement with The Weinstein Company. In addition, he also represented a group of private placement noteholders in taking control of and making a new money investment in Savers LLC, a thrift store operator.

Sanjeet Dutta joins Goodwin Procter in Silicon Valley

Sanjeet Dutta joins Goodwin Procter in Silicon Valley, from Steptoe & Johnson. Sanj has handled over 30 intellectual property matters in state and federal courts, before the ITC, and before the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB). He helped obtain a complete defense victory for DRAM companies in ITC investigations by Tessera. He also successfully invalidated highly litigated patents in the USPTO. Sanj advises companies on patent prosecution across a variety of technology areas, including blockchain, big data analytics, finance, virtualization, cybersecurity, and software security. He advises companies on IP issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, as well as technology transfers and licensing.

Mehdi Khodadad, Joshua DuClos & Team join Sidley Austin from Cooley LLP

Mehdi and Josh belong to a larger team of partners and associates from Cooley that are poised to join Sidley later this week. Mehdi has advised on deals totaling tens of billions of dollars in value, including significant work for Clearlake Capital Group, a leading investment firm focused on private equity and special situations. His practice focuses on the representation of private equity and other institutional investors and their portfolio companies. His clients span the technology and life sciences industries and he serves as a trusted advisor in public financings, corporate restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and related private equity transactions, cross-border and other structured corporate transactions.

Mark Mandel joins Baker McKenzie from Milbank

Mark Mandel joins Baker McKenzie from Milbank in New York City. He advises public and private companies and financial sponsors in connection with investments, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, unsolicited and friendly tender offers, complex joint ventures, public offerings and private placements of securities and restructurings. Mark regularly represents clients in competitive auctions, both as bidders and sellers. He also regularly advises boards of directors and special committees on corporate governance and fiduciary duties. Additionally, Mark has significant experience representing Canadian clients.

Kathleen Smalley and Phillip (Phil) Hosp join Foley and Lardner, LLP

Kathleen Smalley and Phillip (Phil) Hosp join Foley and Lardner, LLP in Los Angeles, as partners. Kathy has extensive background in real estate finance and development and in repositioning distressed real estate. In the development arena, she led an initiative to remediate and develop brownfields and advised clients on entitlements strategies to bring blighted or poorly zoned properties to their highest and best use. In addition, Kathy has been heavily involved in the placement of new financing. She has led teams on the negotiation of complex structured finance, again backed by multistate portfolios of real property, and on negotiating equity investments with financial investors. Kathleen Smalley and Phillip (Phil) Hosp join Foley and Lardner, LLP in Los Angeles. Kathy has extensive background in real estate finance and development and in repositioning distressed real estate. In the development arena, she led an initiative to remediate and develop brownfields and advised clients on entitlements strategies to bring blighted or poorly zoned properties to their highest and best use. In addition, Kathy has been heavily involved in the placement of new financing. She has led teams on the negotiation of complex structured finance, again backed by multistate portfolios of real property, and on negotiating equity investments with financial investors.

Phil represents directors, officers, investment firms, public and private companies, family offices, and other parties in real estate litigation, mergers and acquisitions litigation, SEC investigations, and other cases involving fiduciary duties, unfair competition, and corporate law claims.

Paul Chen joins Mayer Brown from DLA Piper

Paul Chen joins Mayer Brown from DLA Piper in San Francisco. His practice focuses on advising companies, private equity funds, and investor groups on US and cross-border corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, direct investments, joint ventures, and divestitures with a particular focus on insurance clients. He has represented clients in a broad range of industries, including financial services, technology, media, and Healthcare.

Stacy Horth-Neubert joins Sidley Austin

Stacy Horth-Neubert joins Sidley Austin in Los Angeles as counsel in the global litigation group. She joins Sidley from Skadden Arps to join her former colleague Lisa Gilford. Stacy focuses her practice on commercial litigation, multidistrict litigation and class actions, federal and state appeals, international arbitration, and administrative appeals. She has represented several internet-based enterprises and large companies in such industries as design, entertainment, fashion, and travel and leisure.

Top Life Sciences Team to Join Baker McKenzie

Randall "Randy" Sunberg and Denis Segota join Baker McKenzie in Princeton and New York as partners, from Morgan Lewis. Randy is a former co-leader of Morgan's life sciences interdisciplinary group and leader of the life sciences transactions practice. He counsels clients ranging from biotech startups to multinational pharmaceutical companies, structures and negotiates complex collaborations, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and corporate partnering and licensing transactions, as well as equity investments and royalty monetization transactions. Denis represents a number of multinational pharmaceutical companies in corporate transactional and capital markets work. In addition to pharma, biotech, medical device, diagnostics, and technology companies, the group advises private equity, venture capital, and investment banking firms.

Todd Lorenz joins Squire Patton Boggs

Todd Lorenz joins Squire Patton Boggs from Arnold & Porter. Todd has twenty years of experience in life sciences intellectual property law. Todd's practice encompasses strategic patent prosecution and counseling along with related due diligence, opinion work, licensing, and litigation, and he is known for bringing a practical business-oriented focus to the task of global patent portfolio management, working closely with his clients to ensure the filing and pursuit of commercially relevant claims. He advises universities, clinical research centers, and emerging and established life science companies on all aspects of domestic and international patent procurement and enforcement in a broad range of technical areas including biologics, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, and laboratory reagents and procedures, along with related instrumentation.

Lisa Gilford joins Sidley Austin

Lisa Gilford joins Sidley Austin from Skadden Arps. Lisa is one of the leading complex civil litigators in California. Her practice is focused on products liability, large class actions, and jury trials. Her representative clients include automotive companies, pharmaceutical companies, oil & gas, communications companies, academic institutions, and sports entities. Lisa has earned a reputation in shaping the outcome of numerous class actions nationwide.

Terrence Everett joins Blank Rome

Terrence Everett joins Blank Rome from Carlsmith Ball. Terrence concentrates his practice on a broad range of corporate and finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, securities, gaming, hospitality and real estate. He has represented clients from NYSE companies to start up entities in connection with corporate structure and governance, acquisitions, operations and financing and acts as outside general counsel to various companies. Terrence has extensive experience in complex international and cross border operations and transactions as well as equity, debt and venture capital financing, as well as real estate transactions.

Steve Kolyer joins Sidley Austin

Steve Kolyer joins Sidley Austin from Clifford Chance. Kolyer has developed a leading U.S. structured finance and structured credit products practice, particularly in the commercial real estate markets, including CLOs 2.0, REMICs and other mortgage-related financings. He has also established a leading practice in corporate loan CLOs 2.0/3.0 and other managed structured funds. Representative clients include leading investment banks, U.S. commercial real estate lenders, mortgage REITs, private equity funds, asset managers and specialty finance companies.

2018 Placements:

Hale Boggs joins O'Melveny & Myers

Hale Boggs joins O'Melveny & Myers from Manatt Phelps. Hale's practice focuses primarily on corporate and securities matters, including venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, public and private securities offerings and joint ventures. He works with companies across the spectrum of their business cycles, from start-up through late-stage, with a particular emphasis on companies in the digital media industry. He founded Manatt's Palo Alto office in 1998, helped to establish the firm's San Francisco office in 2007, and chaired the firm's digital media practice.

Matt Jacobson joins Ropes & Gray

Matt has more than 20 years of experience in strategic M&A, private equity, venture capital investments, and financings. He has guided an array of buy-and sell-side deals—including acquisitions, carve-outs, spin-outs, joint ventures, alliances and corporate divestitures—for Fortune 100 technology and life sciences companies. and private equity firms.

Adam Weinstein and Tony Feuerstein join Sidley Austin from Akin Gump

Adam and Tony have advised on deals totaling tens of billions of dollars in value over the last five years for clients, including significant work for Apollo Global Management. They represent large-cap and middle-market private equity funds and their portfolio companies in leveraged acquisitions, mergers, strategic investments, growth financings and other deals. Adam and Tony are among a very few top PE partners representing top bulge bracket private equity clients.

Guy Birkenmeier joins Foley & Lardner in Dallas, Texas

Guy represents bio technology and healthcare clients on technology-driven transactions from early planning stages to ultimate integration. He counsels clients on obtaining and safeguarding IP rights from innovator employees through confidential invention disclosure and assignment agreements from strategic partners under licensing and option agreements, or through outright acquisitions. His IP practice spans innovations in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biologics, chemistry and plant sciences.

Shane Albright joins Goodwin Procter from DLA Piper

Shane represents life science and technology companies focusing on licensing and collaborations. In recognition of his outstanding transactional work, Shane has been featured as a "Life Sciences Star" in each edition of LMG Life Sciences since its inauguration in 2012. Shane is a frequent speaker on issues relating to licensing and corporate partnering, and his clients span multiple fields, including companies in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, hardware, software, medical instrumentation, vaccine and research reagent spaces, as well as entities that fund and conduct medical research.

Jordan Hamburger joins Sheppard Mullin

Jordan Hamburger joins Sheppard Mullin in Century City from Manatt Phelps. Jordan's practice focuses on corporate and securities matters, including M&A, private equity and other general corporate representation. He represents entrepreneurs, middle market companies, private equity firms, publicly traded companies and other market participants in the financial services, healthcare and payments industries, among others.

John Booher joins Sheppard Mullin in Palo Alto

John Booher joins Sheppard Mullin in Palo Alto. John's focus is international mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, private equity, and venture capital transactions, corporate governance matters, and the formation and growth of new business primarily in the life sciences, healthcare, satellite/aerospace, transportation, and technology areas. His clients include multinational corporations, private equity and venture capital firms, early and growth-stage companies, individual founders, entrepreneurs and investors.

Eric Newsom joins Sheppard Mullin in San Francisco

Eric Newsom joins Sheppard Mullin in San Francisco from Manatt. Eric's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, complex domestic and international joint ventures, and corporate governance and compliance matters with emphasis on the technology and healthcare industries. Eric also advises clients in connection with cross-border transactions,whether engaging foreign counsel to assist domestic clients in managing offshore assets, or representing foreign clients in sales to, or joint ventures with, U.S.-based businesses.

Co-head of Dechert's Real Estate Finance Practice Joins Gibson Dunn

Kahlil Yearwood joins Gibson Dunn in San Francisco. Kahlil represents major financial institutions and focuses on commercial real estate (CRE) finance, CRE investments, and capital markets. He represents portfolio lenders, CMBS lenders, loan servicers, subordinate bond buyers, private equity firms, and debt fund managers, and represents CRE owners in investment, joint venture, and financing transactions.

Hogan Lovells has hired three bankruptcy partners from Jones Day

Richard 'Rick' Wynne, who has served as lead debtor's counsel to American Apparel and represents Mattel as a creditor in the Toys R Us Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will co-head Hogan Lovells' U.S. bankruptcy, restructuring and insolvency practice. Bennett Spiegel and Erin Brady also join Hogan Lovells as partners. Bennett represented actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in a Chapter 11 case, and rock band Motley Crue in the bankruptcy case of one of the band members. Erin represented American Apparel and its affiliates in two recent Chapter 11 cases.

Leading Capital Markets team to join Sidley Austin

Michael Schiavone, Daniel O'Shea and David Ni join Sidley in New York as partners from O'Melveny and Myers. Mike represents underwriters and issuers in equity, debt and convertible securities offerings and is regularly cited as a leading attorney for equity-linked products and is listed as a leading nationally ranked practitioner for Capital Markets: Debt & Equity in both Chambers USA and Chambers Global. Dan represents issuers and investment banking firms in public and private securities offerings, including high-yield and investment grade debt offerings and IPOs. David handles securities offerings including primary and secondary equity, convertible notes, investment grade and high yield debt.

David Stern joins Dechert as a Litigation Partner

David Stern joins the Los Angeles office of Dechert as a litigation partner. David has considerable first chair trial experience in both state and federal courts. He represents Fortune 500 clients in a wide range of commercial litigation matters including class action, antitrust, intellectual property, media entertainment, securities, real estate, and unfair competition.

Litigation Team joins Alston & Bird

Joining Alston & Bird are partners Jeffrey Rosenfeld and Grant Alexander, along with counsel Rachel Lowe and senior associate Sean Crain. All arrive from DLA Piper. Rosenfeld, who founded DLA's Los Angeles office in 2001 and has served as the office managing partner and head of the office's litigation practice, is a business litigator who focuses his practice on trial and appellate litigation, with an emphasis on class action and other complex commercial litigation. Alexander represents a varied client base in class action and complex commercial lawsuits and general employment litigation involving discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination.

Sidney Fohrman joins Sheppard Mullin as a Partner

Sidney Fohrman joins the Century City office of Sheppard Mullin as a Partner in the Entertainment and Digital Media Practice Group. He will lead the firm's Music Industry Team. Sid provides strategic counsel and transactional support to a diverse client base comprised of talent, influencers, entrepreneurs, and institutions across the digital media, music, fitness, sports, technology, event, film and television industries. He regularly handles multi-faceted entertainment transactions, intellectual property matters, and platform, content and licensing deals related to technology and new media exploitation; advertising, branding, and sponsorship deals; publishing, licensing and other copyright and trademark transactions.

Al Stemp joins Proskauer from Hogan Lovells

Al Stemp joins Proskauer from Hogan Lovells. Al represents a diverse group of clients in connection with a broad range of real estate transactions. He advises private equity funds, REITs, institutional capital sources, retail operators, developers and hospitality companies, among others, on their investments across all real estate asset classes.

Eric Cheung, a healthcare transactional lawyer, joins Foley & Lardner

Eric Cheung, a healthcare transactional lawyer, joins Foley & Lardner in Los Angeles from Ervin, Cohen, and Jessup. Eric concentrates his practice on solving problems for hospitals, medical groups, and physicians on a wide variety of transactions. He has experience on both the transactional and litigation sides which gives him a creative edge in structuring, negotiating, and consummating complex deals and unraveling disputes. His practice revolves around mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, and affiliations in the healthcare industry. He is also familiar with federal and state regulatory compliance concerning anti-kickback, self-referral, and HIPAA laws, risk management and litigation avoidance.

Don Melamed, a investment funds partner, joins Proskauer Rose from O'Melveny & Myers

Don Melamed, a investment funds partner, joins Proskauer Rose from O'Melveny & Myers. Don advises asset managers and institutional investors in fund and investment management related matters with an emphasis on forming buy-out, mezzanine, distressed debt, real estate and venture capital funds and advising investment firms on the formation and operation of their asset management businesses including incentive arrangements, co-investment transactions and spin outs. He also focuses on representing institutional investors and family offices in connection with both primary and secondary transactions in a variety of vehicles and asset classes.

Khoa Do, a top M&A partner, joins Morrison Foerster

Khoa Do, a top M&A partner, joins Morrison Foerster in Palo Alto from Jones Day. His practices focused on large scale M&A work in the technology space, and clients have included MagnaChip Semiconductor, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, SanDisk Corporation, SAP AG, Sharks Sports & Entertainment (San Jose Sharks), and Symantec Corporation. Khoa has been featured in The American Lawyer, The Deal, Venture Capital Journal, Silicon Valley Business Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and other international media.

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