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.

2021 Placements:

Idan Netser and Andrew Harper join Sidley Austin in Palo Alto

Idan joins as a partner in the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital, and Tax practices while Andrew will be a member of the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice. Both lawyers join from Fenwick & West LLP and are an important milestone in Sidley’s strategic expansion in the emerging company technology practice.

Idan advises both emerging and large international companies on a range of transactional work, including cross-border transactions, funding and investments, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, international tax, tax planning, tax controversy, and transfer pricing. He also counsels emerging companies on technology investments and mergers and acquisitions. His clients are in the software, security, and life sciences market and is also a leading international tax counselor for many of the technology sector’s best known brands. He is also the relationship partner for a wide range of technology companies from Israel.

Andrew provides strategic counseling to emerging and high-growth companies at every stage across a variety of sectors. He has extensive experience in a broad array of complex business and financing issues, including equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance matters.

Leah Recht joins Orrick from Kirkland & Ellis

Leah joins Orrick as a partner in their San Francisco office. Her practice is focused on advising private equity funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of their businesses, including structuring and negotiating various strategic and leveraged acquisitions of public and private targets, divestures, carveouts, mergers and acquisitions, equity financings, minority investments, restructurings, executive compensation matters, corporate governance, and other general corporate matters.

She was formerly at Kirkland & Ellis, where she made partner in 2015 and brings to Orrick an expertise in private equity with a focus in technology. She was recently part of a Kirkland team that acted for HGGC on its investment alongside Bain Capital in a cloud-based construction project software provider called Buildertrend.

2020 Placements:

Rick Kline and Sarah Axtell join Latham in Silicon Valley

Rick and Sarah join Latham as partners in the Corporate Department and members of the Capital Markets and Public Company Representation Practices. They formerly practiced at Goodwin, where Rick was co-head of capital markets. Rick and Sarah bring formidable experience in the tech sector, representing a full range of corporate clients on a wide variety of matters, including company formations, venture financings, M&A transactions, capital markets deals, and corporate governance matters, as well as significant experience advising boards of directors. They have also represented a number of banks in securities transactions.

Hogan Lovells Licensing and Collaborations Partner Adam Bellack joins Goodwin

Adam Bellack has joined Goodwin as a partner in their Washington, D.C. office. Adam has consistently been recognized by Law360 as Life Sciences "Rising Star" and one of the nation’s top Life Science lawyers under 40. He focuses on licensing, collaborations, and other strategic and commercial transactions for clients engaged in all aspects of the life sciences and healthcare industries. He represents a wide range of clients from startups and early-stage pharmaceutical and biotech companies to global pharmaceutical and medical device companies. He has also represented founders, venture funds, universities, and technology companies entering the life sciences and healthcare space.

von Briesen & Roper launches Chicago office with nine intellectual property lawyers from Miller, Matthias & Hull

von Briesen & Roper, a 190 lawyer firm headquartered in Milwaukee, has launched a new Chicago office with the addition of nine lawyers, including partners Thomas Miller, Brent Matthias and Nicole Bulman. All join from the former Miller, Matthias & Hull, a boutique IP firm that had focused exclusively on patent prosecution and counseling services, and named a “Go-To Law Firm®” by Corporate Counsel Magazine when conducting a survey of the Chief Patent Counsel of the Fortune 500.

Rick Kline joins Latham & Watkins as a partner

Rick Kline, co-chair of Goodwin Procter's capital markets practice, joins Latham & Watkins as a partner in Northern California. Rick has led on some of the most recent high-profile tech IPOs. He and his team represented JP Morgan as an underwriter in Lyft’s $2.6 billion IPO in 2019 and Morgan Stanley in Snap Inc.'s $3.4 billion IPO in 2017. He also led the legal team handling Slack Technologies Inc.'s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019. Kline has also represented public company clients like Atlassian, Control4, Guidewire Software, Health Catalyst, NetSuite, Okta, Opower, and The Trade Desk.

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has added IP and data privacy lawyer Sarah Schaedler

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has added IP and data privacy lawyer Sarah Schaedler from Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in its San Francisco office, the latest in the firm’s expansion of its technology transactions team. Sarah focuses her practice on IP and data privacy aspects of complex corporate transactions, and also advises clients on the collection, sharing, and monetization of data.

Neil Whoriskey, Co-Chair of M&A Practice at Cleary Gottlieb, joins Milbank

Neil Whoriskey, who co-led the M&A practice and the corporate advisory practice at Cleary Gottlieb, joins Milbank in New York. His practice focuses primarily on mergers, acquisitions, and corporate governance matters. "He has a stellar reputation in the market," Scott Edelman, the Chairman of Milbank said, and Neil is "very experienced in both private equity and in public company and strategic transactions." Neil has advised on a number of high-profile transactions, such as Western Digital's $19 billion acquisition of SanDisk. He's also advised on a variety of matters for Carlyle Global Partners and spearheaded transactions for ABB, América Móvil, American Tower, and OpenText.

Matthew McKim joins Loeb & Loeb as a Partner

Matthew McKim joins Loeb & Loeb as a partner in the Trusts and Estates department in the firm’s Chicago office. McKim advises clients on a wide range of U.S. tax planning matters, with a particular emphasis on income tax structuring for inbound U.S. investments. His clients include high net worth global families, international trust companies and non-U.S. citizens with U.S. contacts. McKim’s practice truly spans the globe. He has counseled clients based in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, PRC, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. McKim brings more than 15 years of experience as a tax and trust lawyer and has extensive experience with a wide range of global family structures. He regularly assists clients (most often multinationals and their families) in navigating the U.S. tax system and with other considerations that arise when families move to or invest in the United States. Prior to joining Loeb & Loeb, McKim led the International Private Client Group at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLP.

Saul Rostamian joins Sheppard Mullin from Winston & Strawn

Saul Rostamian has joined Sheppard Mullin in Los Angles as a partner in the litigation practice group. Saul serves his clients as a litigation trained outside counsel. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and strategic counseling across various sectors including real estate, banking, private equity, public-private partnerships, and manufacturing. His role centers on risk management and providing creative solutions in a wide variety of matters ranging from deals to disputes, drawing on the firm’s broad base of specialists. He has strategically resolved complex disputes short of litigation, and, where necessary, litigated high stakes matters through trial and appeal. He has also guided his clients through complex corporate matters at the core of the companies he represents. Saul has been selected by the Southern California Super Lawyers as a "Rising Star" for Business Litigation (2014-2019).

Erik Wallace, Laurence Ho and team join Loeb & Loeb in Hong Kong

Highly regarded trusts & estates and private client partners Erik Wallace and Laurence Ho, together with Letao Tao and Sarah Lai, have joined Loeb & Loeb in Hong Kong, from Stephenson Harwood. Erik and Laurence will lead the newly formed Hong Kong Trusts & Estates Team, joining Loeb's top ranked Trusts & Estates Department. Erik has been a practicing trusts and estates lawyer for more than 20 years and has spent the past eight years in Hong Kong, and most recently established the U.S. private client practice for Stephenson Harwood. He assists high net worth individuals and families with succession planning, structuring or restructuring trusts, and establishing private trust companies and charitable foundations. Laurence brings more than a decade of experience advising clients on U.S. tax, trust and estate planning matters as well as reporting compliance issues, and also counsels individuals, multinational families, family offices, estates and fiduciaries.

Alex Jacobs joins Goodwin Procter from Pircher Nicols & Meeks

Alex Jacobs has joined Goodwin Procter in Los Angeles as a partner in the real estate practice. Previously on the executive committee at Pircher, where he practiced for 17 years, Alex built out a practice representing commercial owners and developers. He advises private and institutional investors, owners, and developers in connection with the acquisition, disposition, development and financing of commercial real estate properties. He also negotiates and structures complex joint venture agreements between sponsors and capital providers and represents clients for residential development, multifamily residential projects, office buildings, and hotels and resorts. “Alex’s practice complements the skillsets of our existing real estate and hospitality industry team on the West Coast and having him on board further positions us as one of the dominant real estate industry practices in the United States and Europe,” said Dean Pappas, chair of Goodwin’s Los Angeles office, in a statement.

Karen Ubell joins Goodwin Procter

Karen, former attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as former co-chair of the blockchain technology group at Cooley, has joined Goodwin Procter as a partner in the San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on advising digital currency and blockchain clients on interactions with regulators, compliance and the implementation and adoption of novel technologies. "Karen's deep private and public-sector expertise in this space brings tremendous value to our clients and it is a perfect fit for Goodwin's platform at the intersection of capital and innovation in California and globally," Mitzi Chang, co-chair of Goodwin’s digital currency and blockchain technology practice said in a statement.

Katherine Cheung joins Dorsey & Whitney in Hong Kong

Katherine Cheung has joined Dorsey & Whitney in Hong Kong in the Firm's Commercial Litigation Group. Previously with King & Wood Mallesons, Katherine specializes in general commercial disputes and financial services regulatory matters, with an emphasis on cross-border disputes. Her commercial litigation and arbitration experience covers general contractual disputes, shareholder disputes, regulatory investigations, contentious insolvency matters and professional services matters.

Jessica Nall joins Baker McKenzie

Jess, chair of Farella Braun & Martel’s white-collar crime and internal corporate investigations practice, has joined Baker McKenzie as a partner in its San Francisco office, aiding its Northern California expansion. She has for nearly two decades defended companies and individuals in cases involving the Justice Department and other government agencies, including representing executives and employees in the Yahoo! cyber breach investigation, one of the largest in the internet’s history, as well as officials at Samsung and Hitachi.

Frank Rahmani Joins Sidley from Cooley

Frank Rahmani has joined Sidley Austin in San Francisco as a partner in emerging companies and life sciences. Frank advises emerging growth and public companies in the life sciences and technology industries. Working closely with founders, CEO’s, boards of directors and investors, he serves as a trusted advisor in a broad range of matters, from formation and spin-off transactions to financings and public offerings. Frank has completed over 200 institutional and venture financings, over 30 strategic partnerships, and various forms of mergers and acquisitions ranging from 20M to over $3 billion in per deal value. Frank joins the firm from Cooley LLP where he practiced for 23 years.

IP Transactional lawyer Marcela Robledo to join Baker McKenzie

Marcela Robledo has joined Baker McKenzie in their San Francisco office and will serve as a Partner in the firms Intellectual Property & Technology practice group. Marcela has significant experience handling all intellectual property, data and technology aspects in a wide range of corporate and transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing, collaboration agreements and joint ventures. Her practice focuses on technology transactions, and routinely advises public and private clients from all types of industries on the intellectual property, privacy and cybersecurity aspects of a wide range of corporate matters. She joins the firm from Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP, where she led the IP aspects of some of their largest technology M&A transactions.

Joshua Thompson, head of Shearman & Sterling's Global Leveraged Finance Group and head of Private Capital, has joined Sidley & Austin in New York

Josh is a widely recognized finance lawyer who has built a deep practice in leveraged finance. He has advised many of the world’s most prestigious financial institutions and borrowers on complex financing matters. He focuses his practice on acquisition financings and other leveraged lending, which includes leveraged buyouts, tender offers and other going private transactions.

Seasoned data protection partner Jeewon Kim Serrato joins Baker Hostetler in San Francisco

Jeewon Kim Serrato , Norton Rose Fulbright's U.S. Head of Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecuity has left to join Baker Hostetler in their San Francisco office. She wills serve as a partner and co-head of the Digital Transformation and Data Economy group. She advises global companies, financial services institutions and public entities on cutting edge issues at the intersection of technology and law. Globally recognized for her unique background having served in both government and business positions, Jeewon is regularly called upon by her clients to assist in the design and execution of complex global compliance programs, negotiation of cross-border M&A deals, and advice in high-stakes investigation and dispute matters. Jeewon helps companies create enterprise-wide privacy programs from the ground up, assists in testing critical vulnerabilities and performs risk assessments. Having handled and managed hundreds of data breach incidents and internal investigations, she also works with companies to prepare crisis management policies and data breach response plans.

In addition to her product, regulatory compliance and transactional experience, Jeewon has handled over 600 data security incidents over the course of her career and has experience designing and implementing consumer disputes processes for companies globally. She has extensive experience helping her clients with proactive cyber risk management, drafting crisis management plans, and testing incident response protocols.

Brad Newman Joins Baker McKenzie

Brad joins Baker McKenzie in Palo Alto as a litigation partner and Chair of the North American Trade Secrets Practice. Brad joins from Paul Hastings where he founded and served as the chair of the firm’s International Employee Mobility and Trade Secret practice. He regularly serves as lead trial counsel in cases with eight and nine figure liability and has successfully litigated trade secrets cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. He routinely advises and represents the world’s leading technology, gaming, banking, professional service, commerce, and manufacturing companies in connection with their most significant data protection and trade secrets matters. He is recognized by Chambers USA as an “authority on trade secrets cases” and specializes in matters related to trade secrets and Artificial Intelligence.

Greg Chin Joins Duane Morris from Mintz Levin

Greg, who joins Duane Morris as a partner, focuses his practice on representing emerging growth industries, including life sciences, digital health, technology and cleantech, in complex transactional and general corporate matters. He also represents venture capital firms and investment banks that support emerging growth companies. He has represented public and private targets and acquirers in mergers and acquisitions, issuers and investors in venture capital financings, and issuers and underwriters in public and private offerings.

James Kelly, Ilya Bubel and Peter Alfano join DLA Piper

James Kelly, Ilya Bubel and Peter Alfano have joined DLA Piper in New York. The three partners came from the Private Equity and Finance Practices of Winston & Strawn. James will lead DLA's New York private equity group, which revolves around representing private equity funds in LBO's, M&A, equity investments, divestitures and restructurings. Ilya's practice will similarly focus on representing private equity funds and other financial investors in transactional matters. Peter's practice focuses on representing PE sponsors, corporations and other entities in domestic and cross-border finance transactions. Representative clients of the group include The Wicks Group of Companies and Bregal Investments Inc.

Terry Dugan and Chris Owens join O'Melveny

Terry and Chris join O'Melveny's New York office as partners in the entertainment finance practice. They specialize in representing major lenders and investors. These include banks and investment funds in credit and M&A transactions involving entertainment industry players ranging from film studios to record labels.

Abtin Jalali and Chris Harding have joined Gibson Dunn as Partners

Abtin Jalali and Chris Harding have joined Gibson Dunn in San Francisco as partners in its private equity practice. The two joined from Kirkland & Ellis where they were partners in its private equity practice. Their practice focuses on representing private equity firms and their portfolio companies in all aspects of their businesses, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, growth equity investments, minority investments and general corporate matters. Their representative clients include Vista Equity Partners, GI Partners, Vector Capital, Swander Pace Capital, Serent Capital, True Wind Capital, Tower Arch Capital, HGGC, FTV Capital and Spectrum Equity.

M&A Partner Derek Liu leaves Wilson Sonsini to join Baker McKenzie

Derek Liu has joined Baker McKenzie from Wilson Sonsini in their San Francisco office as a Partner in the firms mergers and acquisitions practice. He focuses primarily on the technology and life science industries, where since 2013, he has signed transactions with an aggregate value of more than $60 billion. Derek has worked on some of the most transformative M&A transactions in the tech sector, with completed transactions in pharmaceuticals (Pharmacyclics' sale to AbbVie, Aragon Pharmaceutical's sale to Johnson & Johnson and spinoff of Seragon Pharmaceuticals, Astex Pharmaceutical's sale to Otsuka), software (Advent's sale to SS&C, Salesforce's acquisition of EdgeSpring) and hardware (Riverbed's sale to Thoma Bravo, Aruba Networks' sale to HP, Google's acquisition of Nest). His transaction experiences includes public and private company mergers, acquisition, and divestitures; tender and exchange offers; joint ventures; minority investments; and other strategic corporate transactions, representing both strategic and private equity clients. Derek’s experience also includes capital markets and financing, having assisted clients with initial and secondary offerings, debt offerings, leverage recapitalizations, and exchange offers.

Lead Trial Partner Amar Thakaur to join Manatt

Amar Thakur, a seasoned trial partner joins Manatt Phelps in the Los Angeles office from Quinn Emanuel. Amar is an experienced lead trial lawyer who has tried several significant patent cases to a jury verdict for Plaintiffs and Defendants. His jury trial successes as lead trial counsel for Defendants includes a complete defense jury verdict of no-infringement on all asserted claims from four patents on behalf of his clients Verizon Wireless and Novatel Wireless in 2017. He has litigated across industries including litigation wireless communications, medical devices, software, life technologies, chemicals and semiconductors in patent and commercial disputes. With substantial experience in acquisition of intellectual property and monetization of such assets, Amar’s practice focuses on the development and enforcement of patent portfolios, as well as creating partnerships between IP clients and private investors who can help to monetize promising patent portfolios. He is considered a pioneer in the development of new alternative fee strategies for patent litigation. Patent litigator Bruce Zisser, will join Amar at Manatt as a partner.

Bill Oxley and Meghan Kelly Join Baker Hostetler in Los Angeles and Philadelphia Respectively

Bill Oxley joins Baker Hostetler from Dechert, where he was a trial partner and served as the firm’s Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office. He joins Baker Hostetler Los Angeles as the Head of Litigation. Bill has extensive experience in litigating class actions, false advertising, breach of contract, real estate, and defending nutritional and health product manufacturers and distributors against Proposition 65 claims. Since 2012, he has been ranked as a leading litigator by Chambers USA. He has also been recognized since 2013 for his products liability and mass tort defense work in the toxic torts field by The Legal 500. Bill is also a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has tried many cases to verdict including products liability cases for Union Carbide Corporation and contract and business tort cases for DHL Express (USA). He has also represented The Dow Chemical Company in environmental litigation, DOW AgroSciences in products liability litigation and many other pharmaceutical, manufacturing, entertainment, and environmental companies.

Meghan Kelly has routinely acted as litigation and trial counsel for chemical, pharmaceutical, automotive, manufacturing, and food companies in their most important products liability, mass tort, and environmental cases. She has been recognized by the Legal 500 for her product liability and mass tort defense work and was named by the Philadelphia Business Journal to the 40 under 40 class of 2017.

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