Elliot Schlesinger Katz as partner in San Francisco from DLA Piper LLP.

McGuireWoods LLP has announced that Elliot Katz has joined as a partner to lead the firm’s connected automated vehicle practice in its San Francisco office. In his previous practice, Elliot advised automakers, global technology companies, and municipalities on emerging issues in the mobility space. He also has significant experience litigating privacy, intellectual property, and complex business matters, and counseling clients on privacy and consumer protection laws.

Alisa Shu Edelson as counsel in Los Angeles

Klinedinst PC has announced that Alisa S. Edelson has joined the firm as counsel. Alisa has experience representing individuals and businesses in a variety of disputes involving unfair competition, defamation, trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, idea submission, and wrongful termination in state and federal courts. In addition, Alisa has counseled clients on branding and intellectual property protection and enforcement including with respect to due diligence, clearance, prosecution, and management.

Jason R. Vollbracht as partner in San Francisco from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Goodwin Procter LLP has announced that Jason Vollbracht has joined its tax group as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. Jason focuses his practice on federal income taxation, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, formation of investment funds, partnerships and other joint ventures, and real estate transactions.

Laura Reathaford as partner in Los Angeles from Venable LLP.

Blank Rome LLP has announced that Laura Reathaford has joined its Labor and Employment group in Los Angeles. Laura focuses her practice on management-side employment litigation, with a special emphasis on representative actions under the Private Attorney General Act and other wage and hour collective and class actions. She counsels clients on termination issues, employee handbooks, leave and disability rules, and California and federal wage and hour laws, and represents the management of public and private businesses in the manufacturing and grocery industries, as well as in banking, healthcare, and telecommunications.

Rick Chiliang Chang as partner in San Francisco from LeClairRyan LLP.

Foley & Lardner LLP has announced that Rick Chang has joined its IP Litigation Practice in San Francisco. Chang, a seasoned intellectual property litigation and transactions lawyer, represents technology clients in patent, trade secrets, ANDA and complex commercial matters in district court; AIA procedures before the Patent Office; and Section 337 investigations at the International Trade Commission. Chang also provides counseling to start-ups in technology transactions, patent licensing, and IP strategy.

Duane H. Mathiowetz as partner in San Francisco from LeClairRyan LLP.

Foley & Lardner LLP has announced that Duane Mathiowetz has joined its IP Litigation Practice in San Francisco. Duane, a registered patent attorney with a graduate degree in mechanical engineering design, primarily represents clients in patent litigation before U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission, as well as in post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office across diverse technologies. He also provides patent counseling and licensing services and represents clients in copyright, trademark, trade secret, unfair competition and complex commercial disputes.

David Michael Ross as partner in Los Angeles

David Ross, former of counsel for Carlsmith Ball, has been promoted to partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. David’s practice includes complex commercial litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and pre-dispute counseling.

Chris Carr as Partner in San Francisco from MoFo.

Baker Botts has announced that Chris Carr has joined the firm’s Environmental practice based in San Francisco. Mr. Carr represents businesses, land developers, private individuals, public agencies and nonprofits in all areas of environmental and natural resource law, including energy, transportation, water, forestry, mining, coastal and marine resources, and agriculture. In particular, Mr. Carr's practice focuses on permitting and litigation under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as their California counterparts: the California ESA, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He is also an expert in local, state, federal and international laws, regulations, initiatives and programs to promote the development of clean energy.

Tad Tadashi Egawa as Chief counsel in Sacramento

Tad Egawa has been appointed chief counsel at the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration after serving as general counsel at the California Department of Housing and Community Development since 2015. Tad was assistant commissioner of legal affairs at the California Bureau of Real Estate from 2013 to 2015, and was a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General from 2009 to 2013.

Gary A. Barrera as Partner in Oakland from Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan LLP.

Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP has added Gary A. Barrera as a partner in its Insurance Practice Group. Gary has more than 12 years of experience in insurance coverage litigation, defending insurance carriers and third-party administrators on bad faith, declaratory relief and equitable contribution actions. He has also represented major residential home builders in all aspects of construction defect litigation and has resolved insurance coverage disputes arising out of construction claims on behalf of policyholders.

Donna Lynne Wilson as Co-Chair of Financial Services Group in Los Angeles

Donna Wilson is nationally-recognized for her high-profile work on behalf of companies facing litigation and government enforcement actions, with a focus on both the consumer financial services and privacy and data security spaces. She has successfully represented clients including banks, mortgage servicers, auto finance companies, retailers and other financial services providers, as well as clients in other regulated industries, in a range of complex, high-stakes matters.

Matthew Herman Poppe as Partner in Palo Alto and San Francisco from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Rimon, P.C. has added Intellectual Property Litigation Partner Matthew Poppe as a partner in the firm's Palo Alto and San Francisco office. Matt has handled patent and IP cases for clients such as Varian Medical Systems, Dell EMC, eBay, Baidu, and Brocade, and has represented a variety of Asia-based clients in U.S. litigation arising out of troubled business relationships.

Ying Genève DuBois as Partner in Miami from Holland & Knight LLP.

DLA Piper has announced that Ying Genève DuBois has joined the firm’s Real Estate practic as a partner in the Miami office. DuBois focuses her practice primarily on representing US and global investors in their US real estate investments. She has extensive experience in complex transactional matters, particularly in regard to investors from China and other Asia-Pacific countries. Prior to joining DLA Piper, DuBois was a partner with Holland & Knight LLP. She received her J.D., cum laude, from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and earned her B.B.A., summa cum laude, from Texas Christian University.

Ian D. Smith as shareholder in Santa Barbara from Cooley LLP.

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth has hired Ian Smith as a shareholder in the firm's Santa Barbara office. He will be a part of the firm’s venture capital, emerging companies and M&A deal teams. Smith has extensive experience in private and public securities, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions. Smith’s more notable deals include SingTel’s acquisition of the US operations of Adconion Media, LegalZoom’s equity sale to Permira, Fidelity National Financial’s sale of One Digital to New Mountain Capital and TrackR’s Preferred Stock financing transactions.

Travis F. Jackson as partner in Los Angeles from Polsinelli LLP.

King & Spalding LLP has hired Travis F. Jackson as a partner in its Los Angeles office. Jackson represents clients — including health systems and hospitals — on transactional issues in the healthcare sector, including commercial, M&A, tax, executive compensation, corporate governance and financial matters.

Danielle V. Garcia as partner in Los Angeles from Blank Rome LLP.

Holland & Knight LLP has hired Danielle V. Garcia as a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. She will be part of Holland & Knight's financial services practice group. Garcia focuses her practice on representing lenders in secured finance transactions, including senior, second lien and mezzanine financings, on an asset-based, recurring revenue, cash-flow and leveraged basis.

Bruce Nye as of counsel in Oakland from Adams | Nye | Becht | LLP.

The Scali Law Firm has hired Bruce Nye as of counsel in the firm's new Oakland office. He focuses his practice on representing automobile dealerships and other companies in consumer litigation to representing companies in business litigation, toxic exposure litigation, personal injury, product liability and employment litigation.

William Mark Levinson as Partner in Los Angeles from Fox Rothschild LLP.

Corporate attorney William Mark Levinson will be joining Thompson Coburn as a partner in its Los Angeles office. Mark’s practice focuses on corporate and securities, municipal finance and real estate. Mark brings more than three decades of experience with him, most recently serving as a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP, where he was co-chair of the firm’s Financial Services industry practice.

David Lisson as partner in Menlo Park

David Lisson has joined Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as a partner in the firm's Litigation Department, practicing in Northern California. He has experience litigating patent infringement and other intellectual property cases, as well as general commercial disputes. He has worked on matters across various industries, including telecommunications, data and video networks and services, minimally invasive surgical devices, and search engine and database applications.

Paul Traina as partner in Los Angeles from Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack.

The Stalwart Law Group has hired Paul Traina as a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. Traina's practice focuses on high-value catastrophic injury cases, complex civil and business litigation, class action, securities litigation, and professional liability claims.

Jaikaran Singh as partner in San Diego from Dentons US LLP.

Foley & Lardner LLP has hired Jaikaran (Jai) Singh as partner in the firm's San Diego office. Singh will be a part of Foley & Lardner's consumer law, finance and class action practice group. His practice focuses on high-stakes business and commercial litigation and consumer class action defense, including multi-district litigation, primarily in the retail, food and beverage, multifamily housing, healthcare, manufacturing and financial industry sectors.

Erik C. Swanholt as partner in Los Angeles from Jones Day.

Foley & Lardner LLP has hired Erik C. Swanholt as a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. He will be part of Foley & Lardner's business litigation and dispute resolution group. With over 19 years of experience as a business litigator, Swanholt’s practice is focused on a wide range of litigation matters involving product liability, commercial and consumer class actions, toxic tort litigation and pharmaceutical drug defects. He also works on matters involving privacy, cybersecurity and data protection.

Alan D. Seem as partner in Palo Alto

Jones Day has hired Alan D. Seem as partner in the firm's Palo Alto office. He will be a member of the firm's corporate and securities practice. His primary areas of focus are IPOs, follow-on offerings of debt and equity securities, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, private equity, going-private transactions and fund-related issues. Seem regularly advises companies and their boards regarding corporate governance matters, including SEC and stock exchange compliance, board and committee functions and disclosure-related matters.

Carolyn J. Kubota as partner in Los Angeles from O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

Covington & Burling LLP has hired Carolyn J. Kubota as partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. She will be part of Covington's litigation and investigations and regulatory and public policy practice groups. Kubota has served as lead counsel on high-profile investigations, criminal trials, and high-stakes commercial litigation matters, representing clients in a range of industries, including life sciences, health care, and technology.