Malhar Oza was promoted to counsel of Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP in San Francisco.

Oza assists clients on various operational, transactional, and regulatory matters related to digital assets, including fund formation (domestic and offshore). He also counsels crypto managers, investment advisers, digital asset fund managers, and other members of the digital asset investment management industry on complex compliance matters related to state and federal securities laws.

Allison M. Whitmore was promoted to partner of Withersworldwide in San Diego.

Whitmore focuses her practice on estate planning, estate and trust administration, estate and gift taxation, business succession planning, and charitable giving. She advises clients on advanced estate planning techniques to mitigate income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. She works with high net-worth individuals and families to implement sophisticated wealth transfer strategies, including the creation of intentionally defective grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, annual exclusion gift trusts, and irrevocable life insurance trusts, among others. In addition, Whitmore counsels fiduciaries and beneficiaries with respect to complex estate and trust administration matters.

Michael C. Douglass joined Parker Shaffie LLP as senior counsel in Los Angeles.

Douglass brings extensive experience representing corporate and municipal clients in complex commercial, professional liability, trucking, employment, insurance bad faith, consumer finance, and product liability matters. He has defended clients in arbitration, tried cases to verdict, and successfully argued before the California Court of Appeal, resulting in reported decisions. He is pragmatic, seasoned, and well-versed in providing his clients with strategic counsel to help them make better-informed decisions to assist in managing their legal risks and protecting their brands.

James W. Carson was promoted to partner of Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni, LLP in San Francisco.

Carson advises corporations, non-profit organizations, trade associations, political committees, and individuals about campaign finance, lobbying disclosure and ethics laws at every level of government. He works closely with a diversity of clients across the regulated community to develop sophisticated nationwide compliance programs and has successfully guided clients through difficult ethics investigations and audits. He serves as legal counsel, treasurer and strategic advisor to political, tax exempt and ballot measures organizations. He also has experience representing transportation industry clients in proceedings before the California Public Utilities Commission and other agencies.

Victoria Rodriguez was promoted to associate of Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni, LLP in Sacramento.

Rodriguez is an associate in the firm’s government law section.

Gina Stassi joined Knox Ricksen LLP as counsel in Walnut Creek.

Stassi represents clients in qui tam actions for insurance fraud and unfair business practices against healthcare providers, clinics, management services organizations, and their conspirators. She has a proven track record representing clients in complex disputes, including in litigation. During her 15-year career, she has represented clients in sophisticated legal matters ranging from venture capital fund investments, management, and trademark disputes to litigation involving commercial, contractual, and employment matters.

Matthew G. Bouslog joined Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP as partner in Irvine.

Bouslog represents debtors, creditors, and investors in complex restructuring matters, including in- and out-of-court restructurings, distressed acquisitions, and bankruptcy-related litigation. He also has significant experience with cross-border bankruptcy matters. He regularly advises clients on corporate governance and fiduciary duty issues and bankruptcy-related issues in real estate, finance, corporate, and litigation matters. In addition to his restructuring expertise, he represents clients in UCC Article 9 matters and enforcement of rights and remedies generally.

Khoa D. Do joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as partner in Silicon Valley.

Do focuses on strategic and private equity mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, ranging from midmarket to large-scale acquisitions involving publicly traded and privately held corporations. Do advises technology companies and private equity firms on a range of transactions, including strategic mergers and business combinations, asset and stock acquisitions, and complex cross-border acquisitions. He also represents clients on tender offers, divestitures, and spinoffs.

Rachael Lamkin joined Baker Botts LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Lamkin litigates across all IP categories, and from both sides of the V but has a focus on patent litigation defense. Passionate about strategy and leverage in litigation, she shifts the asymmetries that traditionally hamper the defense side, e.g., asymmetries in information, cost, financing, and damages. In so doing, Lamkin has been able to obtain multiple attorney's fees awards and game-changing settlements.

Betsy Olson joined Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP as counsel in Los Angeles.

Olson advises plan sponsors on the design and operation of their qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and other benefit plans, programs, and agreements. She provides practical advice to plan sponsors to assist in strategic benefits planning and ongoing compliance with the complex statutory rules and regulations that apply to these benefits, including ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.

Elizabeth N. Thompson joined Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP as partner in San Diego.

Thompson advises a broad range of clients on the negotiation and structuring of complex joint ventures in connection with the acquisition, disposition, and development of all asset types. Her representation of publicly and privately held clients on an array of corporate matters, including capital raising, debt issuance, corporate governance, equity compensation, investor relations, commercial contracts, and business combination transactions, furthers a holistic approach to accomplishing client objectives in a strategic and efficient manner. Her perspective, having previously practiced in-house for companies ranging from a start-up to a global NYSE-listed life science REIT, provides her with unique insight into client needs with respect to complex deal structuring and execution.

A. Jeanne Grove joined Nixon Peabody as partner in San Francisco.

Grove is a real estate attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in both litigation and transactions. Jeanne represents homeowner associations (HOAs), real estate brokers/agents, developers, private lenders, property owners, and business owners.

Ashley E. Klein joined Nixon Peabody as partner in San Francisco.

Klein is a commercial and residential real estate litigator with extensive trial, arbitration, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) experience. She represents real estate developers, real estate investment trusts (REITs), property management companies, landlords, and homeowners.

Christine S. Hwang joined Jones Day as partner in San Francisco.

Hwang represents employee health and welfare plans and defined benefit pension plans, advising them on a wide range of ERISA compliance issues--including ACA, ERISA, COBRA, and HIPAA--and various participant issues. She also has significant experience representing welfare and pension plans in benefit claims litigation, and the prosecution of all stages of collection arbitration and litigation.

Tanya L. Greene was promoted to office managing partner of McGuireWoods LLP in Downtown Los Angeles.

Greene handles high-profile litigation for some of the world's most prominent corporations. A partner in the firm's Complex Commercial Litigation Department, she serves on McGuireWoods' national recruiting committee and is the former pro bono leader for the firm's downtown Los Angeles and Century City offices.

Nick Gerlach joined Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Gerlach's practice focuses on advising clients on the tax aspects of a wide range of business transactions, including structuring tax-efficient mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, divestitures, and other restructurings for corporations, partnerships, and other pass-through entities. He also focuses on drafting and negotiating agreements related to all phases of a company's operations, including formation, acquisition, financing, and restructuring.

Tracy B. Rane joined Kibler Fowler & Cave LLP as counsel in Los Angeles.

Rane is an intellectual property and entertainment litigator with two decades of experience counseling clients in complex entertainment, intellectual property, and business disputes. Her practice focuses on matters involving copyright infringement, trademark infringement, defamation, right of publicity, right of privacy, breach of contract, insurance coverage, and general business and commercial litigation. Rane has successfully represented clients from the pre-litigation stage through trial and arbitration in various forums in California and other states. She also has substantial appellate experience and has appeared on behalf of her clients before the California Courts of Appeal and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Amy Simpson joined Holland & Knight LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Simpson is a patent litigator and inter partes review (IPR) lawyer with more than two decades of experience strategically guiding technology companies in their offensive and defensive patent disputes. She has litigated high-profile cases across the United States in federal district courts and before the ITC involving a wide range of technologies, including LEDs, printers, wireless and cellular communications, software, semiconductor manufacturing, and packaging technologies. Simpson has represented clients in IPRs before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and is lead counsel on more than 50 IPRs.

Yue Joy Wang joined Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP as associate in Silicon Valley.

Wang has nearly a decade of experience in intellectual property litigation. Focusing on patent matters in district courts and before the ITC, her technical background and former career as an engineer enable her to advise clients across various products and technologies

Patrick Colsher joined Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP as partner in Silicon Valley.

Colsher focuses on intellectual property and other complex commercial litigation and counseling. A registered patent attorney with a technical background in electrical and biomedical engineering, he is frequently called upon to guide clients through their toughest IP issues. Patrick has significant trial experience, having litigated numerous patent, trade secret, and other IP cases in federal courts throughout the country and Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission. He has also developed a track record for success in post-grant inter partes review and covered business method review trials before the US Patent & Trademark Office, acting as lead counsel for both petitioners and patent owners in dozens of trials.

Matthew Berkowitz joined Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP as partner in Silicon Valley.

Berkowitz has nearly 20 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes patent infringement disputes in federal district courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC), as well as in post-grant proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Berkowitz has argued and won numerous cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He previously launched and spearheaded Shearman & Sterling's intellectual property litigation practice.

Jennifer J. Lee joined Jenner & Block LLP as partner in San Francisco.

A former Assistant Director in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Enforcement, Lee represents public and pre-IPO companies, corporate officers, financial institutions, and asset management firms in high-stakes regulatory investigations, internal investigations, and litigation. Lee brings nearly 20 years of experience as a litigator in the government and the private sector to help clients navigate government scrutiny.

Eli W. Mansour joined Snell & Wilmer LLP as partner in San Diego.

Mansour counsels clients on a variety of technology transaction matters including the discovery, development, protection, licensing, and commercialization of pharmaceuticals, novel life sciences solutions and medical devices, and related intellectual property. He regularly drafts and negotiates clinical trial agreements, development, manufacturing, distribution, and complex licensing agreements and has extensive experience in device discovery agreements, joint venture agreements and technology assignments, and transfer transactions.

Hamid Namazie joined Holland & Knight LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Namazie focuses his practice on providing counsel to lenders on syndicated and bilateral senior secured asset-based loans and cash flow loans, as well as second lien and subordinated loans, including acquisition financings, recapitalizations, refinancings, and cross-border and multicurrency lending.

Mark Spitzer joined Holland & Knight LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Spitzer has over 30 years of wide-ranging experience in the commercial finance arena. His core client base consists of money center banks, regional commercial banks, local agencies of foreign banks, finance companies, and alternative lenders, including structured debt funds. He structures, negotiates, and documents a broad variety of finance transactions, including complex secured and unsecured syndicated credit facilities, cash flow and asset-based loans, acquisition financings, credit product portfolio sales, mezzanine investments, and multistate real estate-secured transactions. He has extensive experience in loan workout matters, including debt and equity restructurings.

Yoojin Lee joined Holland & Knight LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Lee’s practice focuses on representing financial institutions across a wide array of industries in domestic and international secured lending transactions with an emphasis on asset-based lending. Her practice also includes syndicated credit facilities and acquisition financing, and she has experience in debtor-in-possession financings.

Jason Altieri joined Scale LLP as partner in San Francisco.

Altieri has served as general counsel and chief compliance officer in the highly regulated and complex industries of lending, mortgage, real estate investing, and insurance, including eight years as a public company general counsel and chief compliance officer at LendingClub. As a GC, he has led and overseen billions of dollars in private debt and equity fundings, fund capitalizations, consumer and business lending, public equity capital, and strategic acquisitions.

Jeffery McFarland joined Eisner LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

McFarland is a veteran litigator who represents entertainment clients in their high-profile, high-stakes business disputes. For nearly three decades, he has served as a dedicated advocate for clients on the talent side, including actors, producers, directors, and screenwriters, as well as studios, production companies, television networks, and video game publishers.

Michael J. Fisher joined Miller Barondess, LLP as associate in Los Angeles.

Fisher is a litigator with experience in state and federal court and domestic and international arbitration. He has represented clients in the entertainment, finance, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in government enforcement proceedings.

Caitlin M. Jolley joined Miller Barondess, LLP as associate in Los Angeles.

Jolley is an experienced attorney with litigation and appellate experience at the state and federal level. She has represented clients in a myriad of industries, including automotive, finance, solar, and healthcare.