Jane Davidson joined Munck Wilson Mandala as associate in Los Angeles.

Davidson will support MWM's award-winning litigation section and the firm's growing entertainment practice. She previously worked as an associate at Larson LLP in Los Angeles.

Davidson represents a wide variety of clients in intellectual property disputes, product liability, employment law, entertainment, and real estate matters. She has an impressive record of handling litigation for trademark and copyright infringement suits for large portfolios held by music festivals, sports teams, and jewelry designers. Davidson is also known for her sound counsel on compliance with emerging privacy legislation and advises businesses on California's CCPA, and she is also a certified CIPP-US Data Privacy Professional.

A music aficionado herself, Davidson has counseled musicians and influencers on entertainment agreements, and she enjoys speaking and writing about legal issues in entertainment, social media, and privacy as well as the ethics and inclusion issues woven into those industries. Among her notable cases, Davidson was a member of a team that successfully terminated the conservatorship for a high-profile musician, and she successfully recovered dozens of domain names infringing on a famous music festival's trademarks.

Davidson is an adjunct professor at her alma mater, University of Southern California, where she teaches an undergraduate course in USC's Music Industry program focused on copyright law, record deals, music licensing, and marketing regulations.

Negin Taleb was promoted to managing attorney of Shegerian & Associates in San Diego.

Taleb specializes in employment law cases, including those involving discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

Edward Farrell joined Stuart Kane LLP as partner in Stuart Kane LLP.

Farrell's practice focuses on civil disputes in the areas of real estate, construction, and employment. He is a seasoned litigator and trial attorney focused on representing professional individuals as well as regional, national and international entities in both California state courts and U.S. District Courts.

Alfred W. "Chip" Sloan joined Stradling as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Sloan represents entrepreneurs and corporations in forming new entities, financings, and general corporate services. He extends his services to entertainment and production companies, as well as individuals in the entertainment, sports, and brand industries, throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe. He also advises professional athletes and teams from leagues across the globe in team contract negotiations, endorsement deal procurement, arbitration, licensing and naming rights. Since 2001 he has serviced contracts, prepared arbitration cases, and negotiated performance terms and endorsement deals for some of the sports world's biggest stars.

Sloan is the founder of TRUE Equity, a minority owned private equity group that invests in sports assets globally. TRUE Equity is positioned as the world's leading sports private equity group, with its principals having successfully executed over 50 transactions with a primary focus around assets in prominent leagues such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, as well as global motorsports properties, global football, rugby, and emerging media. He is a member of the Sports Lawyers Association and Beverly Hills Bar Associations and is admitted to practice in California state and federal courts.

Andrew Martin Klimenko joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as partner in San Francisco.

Klimenko is a member of the Product & General Liability, Commercial Litigation, and Trial practice groups. He has successfully defended and prosecuted a broad spectrum of matters including commercial claims, breach of contract, catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death, real estate, and professional error and omissions liability claims. He has completed more than 55 jury trials to verdict, as well as numerous binding arbitrations. Klimenko is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates ("ABOTA"). He is also a certified mediator.

Monica Bachner joined Judicate West as neutral in Los Angeles.

Appointed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2002, Bachner served on the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench for more than 20 years, presiding over a variety of cases, including commercial, employment and real property matters. Throughout her judicial tenure, Bachner served on numerous court committees, including chairing the Judicial Education Seminars Governing Committee, a group charged with creating judicial education policy and facilitating educational seminars. Bachner is affiliated with the Los Angeles office and available statewide as a mediator, arbitrator and private judge.

Rachel A. Baker joined Everett Dorey LLP as senior associate in Irvine.

Baker specializes in general liability and business law matters. She is a registered patent attorney licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Nina Golshan as associate in Pasadena

Golshan is an associate in the firm's business practice group. She has a background in complex corporate and commercial financing transactions as well as private investment fund formation and structuring. She has experience representing financial institutions and public and private companies in a broad range of industries, including software, energy, healthcare, and retail.

Travis Robert Eagan was promoted to partner of MLG Attorneys at Law in Costa Mesa.

Eagan handles a variety of cases, including automotive products liability and personal injury. In his tenure, Eagan has litigated cases against nearly every automotive manufacturer in the world and has been involved in nationwide class actions. Among his notable victories is a defamation case that resulted in a substantial trial verdict. In the upcoming year, Eagan is scheduled to take on litigation involving car manufacturers such as FCA, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, Lexus, and Toyota.

Adam C. Abrahms joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as partner in Century City.

Abrahms provides employers with sophisticated counsel on strategic labor-management relations in both organized and nonunion operations. He guides employers through collective bargaining and other complex labor negotiations and counsels on matters related to union organizing, representation/decertification elections, corporate campaigns, unfair labor practices, and union contract administration and management.

Justin Thompson joined BH Properties as general counsel in Los Angeles.

In private practice for more than 25 years at several of the nation's most prestigious law firms, Thompson has represented many of the industry's leading developers, investors and property owners. During his career, Thompson has been involved in a wide variety of transactions including acquisitions/dispositions, financings, development, leasing, loan restructurings, land exchanges, sale-leasebacks, and joint ventures, across all property types.

W. Chad Shear joined Cooley LLP as partner in San Diego.

Shear represents pharmaceutical companies in high-stakes patent litigation in the U.S. and abroad. He is known globally for successfully protecting the intellectual property rights and assets of his clients in make-or-break disputes that determine returns on multibillion-dollar investments and decades of research.

Geoffrey Biegler joined Cooley LLP as partner in San Diego.

Biegler is a seasoned life sciences litigator with a particular focus on pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, including Hatch-Waxman cases, Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) cases, competitor pharmaceutical and biotechnology cases, and life sciences-related post-grant proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Jayni F. Hein joined Covington & Burling LLP as of counsel in San Francisco.

During her tenure at CEQ, she oversaw the Biden Administration's ambitious environmental and clean energy agenda, leading work on low-carbon projects and climate disclosure and advancing the successful implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021) and Inflation Reduction Act (2022). She has extensive experience advising clients on NEPA, Clean Air Act, and Endangered Species Act issues, as well as energy development on public lands. As the former senior political appointee spearheading work to revise NEPA regulations and issue guidance on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, she offers clients first-hand experience with infrastructure projects that require federal and state permits and authorization. She helps clients identify new funding opportunities and successfully advance clean energy and other infrastructure projects, including onshore and offshore wind, solar, hydrogen, transmission, semiconductor, and carbon, capture, sequestration, and utilization (CCUS) projects.

Bryn E. Jedlic joined Miller Starr Regalia as of counsel in Walnut Creek.

Jedlic is in the Land Use Department at Miller Starr Regalia, focusing on land use matters. He led the real estate team at Mubadala Real Estate and Infrastructure, overseeing the development of more than three million square feet of retail, residential, hospitality, and office projects on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE, while also leading Mubadala's international real estate investments and partnerships.

Paul Fraidenburgh joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as partner in San Diego.

Fraidenburgh has tried to conclusion numerous high-stakes business disputes. He has prevailed on behalf of clients in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and at the state Supreme Court level. Paul represents clients ranging from government agencies to Fortune 100 companies across a wide range of industries, including technology, aviation, real estate, energy, sports, and entertainment.

Matthew D. Umhofer as managing partner in Los Angeles

A recipient of the California Lawyer of the Year Award, Umhofer has thrived in handling challenging matters, helping clients navigate rough waters, and finding creative ways to solve complicated legal problems. He took on the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles--and compelled the city and the county to commit $3.5 billion in services, shelter, and housing subject to five years of federal court enforcement as well as defending Planned Parenthood affiliates and employees from False Claims Act cases and violent assaults.

Elizabeth Mitchell as partner in Los Angeles

Mitchell has litigated thousands of cases in multiple jurisdictions. Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation, spanning a wide range of substantive areas, including constitutional, commercial disputes, trade secret allegations, the False Claims Act, and legal malpractice. She pioneered a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the City and County of Los Angeles, demanding beds, services, and treatment for thousands of homeless individuals and clean and safe streets for the community. The lawsuit prompted swift and dynamic action by the Federal Court during the COVID-19 crisis, which ultimately resulted in a $4 billion commitment for an additional 20,000 beds with services and treatment for homeless Angelenos by the City and County of Los Angeles and commitment to encampment reduction.

J. Anthony King as partner in Los Angeles

King has been a complex civil and employment trial lawyer in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration forums, for more than 19 years on both coasts and has been privileged to represent Fortune 500 companies and their individual officers, executives of Southern California community colleges and school districts, and a variety of other companies, large and small, in numerous high-stakes cases.

Dolly K. Hansen as partner in Los Angeles

Hansen is an experienced attorney whose practice includes both complex, large-scale civil litigation and a wide range of criminal defense matters. Hansen represented clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to individual pro bono clients.

Diane H. Bang as counsel in Los Angeles

Bang litigates complex civil and criminal cases at both the state and federal levels and has been named a 2019 and 2020 California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine. She has experience in a range of matters, including fraud, breach of contract, shareholder derivative claims, 1983 claims, and internal investigations. She also has defended executives and businesses against criminal charges, including wire fraud, healthcare fraud, and securities fraud.

Adam Snyder as senior associate in Los Angeles

Snyder litigates complex civil and criminal cases with a focus on securities, cryptocurrency, financial services, and white-collar defense. He has experience in a wide range of matters, including fraud, breach of contract, RICO commercial bribery, trade secret misappropriation, and internal investigations.

Jonas P. Mann as senior associate in Los Angeles

Mann is a seasoned attorney with over 15 years of complex litigation experience.

Su Da was promoted to counsel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Palo Alto.

Da advises public and private clients on a variety of internal and third-party transactions, including domestic and cross-border acquisition, disposition, and restructuring transactions, debt and equity financings, initial public offerings, and international planning.

Christopher P. Hammond was promoted to counsel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Palo Alto.

Hammond represents public and private clients in complex strategic transactions and corporate governance matters, including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, investments and restructurings, as well as situations involving challenges to corporate control.

Hillary A. Hamilton was promoted to counsel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Los Angeles.

Hamilton represents a wide variety of clients in commercial litigation disputes in federal and state courts across the nation. She has extensive experience in complex litigation matters, particularly in consumer class actions.

Anoush D. Sarkissian was promoted to counsel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Los Angeles.

Sarkissian represents clients in a range of complex real estate matters. Her practice includes portfolio and single-asset acquisitions, dispositions of various classes of real estate assets, joint ventures, financings, developments and leases. Her clients include institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, lenders, borrowers, buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants and developers. She also has been involved in various alternative energy transactions involving wind and solar farms, and the development and financing of transmission facilities.

Susan Leader joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Century City.

Leader litigates and tries cases in high-stakes commercial matters and class actions in federal and state courts. She has chaired more than a dozen trials, arbitrations, and international arbitrations and has represented clients in a variety of industries, including entertainment and media, hospitality, funds, and renewable energy sectors. Ms. Leader's broad base of experience includes handling a wide variety of commercial litigation matters, employment disputes, product liability disputes, franchise law violations, False Claims Act, and RICO and Sherman Act violations.

Kenneth Deutsch joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Century City.

Deutsch is global co-chair of the Entertainment and Media practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm's Century City office. He represents a broad array of operating entities in the entertainment and media industries, including film and television studios, streaming platforms, and independent media companies, advising on their most significant corporate transactions as well as on a variety of film, television, and other commercial ventures.

Rosemary T. McGuire joined Judicate West as neutral in Santa Ana.

Judge McGuire, who is affiliated with the Santa Ana office, is available statewide as a mediator, arbitrator, and private judge. Appointed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, Judge McGuire served on the Fresno County Superior Court bench for 12 years, presiding over civil and family law matters, as well as serving on the court's Appellate Division. Prior to her bench appointment, she was a partner with Weakley, Arendt & McGuire LLP and spent 17 years in private practice trying a variety of civil rights and tort litigation matters involving public, business and religious entities. From 2001-2006, Judge McGuire served as judge pro tem in the Juvenile Delinquency Division of the Fresno County Superior Court.

James P. Kousoulas joined Alston & Bird LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Kousoulas counsels banks, private equity firms, private lenders, debt funds, life insurance companies, and other corporate clients on commercial lending and transactional real estate matters. He has more than 25 years of experience helping clients through a variety of complicated commercial loan transactions, including commercial mortgage-backed securities, mezzanine financings, secured and unsecured real estate and asset-based borrowing facilities, letter of credit facilities, secured and unsecured revolving lines of credit, and construction and bridge loans. His advice to clients throughout the United States often focuses on multistate transactions.

James P. Litwinovich joined Alston & Bird LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Litwinovich represents institutional lenders in commercial real estate financing and a wide range of other financial services matters across the real estate and banking industries. Clients around the country seek his assistance with acquisition and development loans, construction and bridge loans, permanent financing, mezzanine and other subordinate financing, and other complex real estate financing transactions.

Leslie A. Horwitz joined Blank Rome LLP as associate in Orange County.

Horwitz concentrates her practice on a wide range of labor relations and employment law matters.

Sarah Estephan joined Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP as associate in Orange County.

Estephan focuses her practice on assisting clients with creating data privacy and cybersecurity policies and procedures, as well as with implementing corporate compliance and privacy programs. In addition, Estephan regularly provides fully managed incident response services to clients of all sizes and in all sectors, including the facilitation of digital forensic investigations and determinations regarding legal breach notification obligations.

Erick Dimalanta was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in San Francisco.

Dimalanta focuses on construction disputes, business litigation, premises liability, property damage, subrogation claims and professional liability matters. Dimalanta is a veteran litigator with extensive experience in all aspects of complex civil litigation. He has resolved hundreds of lawsuits and pre-litigation disputes through motion, settlement or decision.

Rachel Donnelly was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in San Diego.

Donnelly represents clients in state and federal courts. She has over a decade of legal experience representing clients in civil cases ranging from personal injury to labor and employment matters and is currently a member of the firm's Complex Trial Team. She has successfully achieved superior results for her clients through dispositive motions and settlement negotiations.

Derek Earley was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in Orange County.

Earley focuses on the defense of personal injury, general commercial liability, professional liability and business litigation matters. He has achieved favorable results for his clients during all phases of pre-trial litigation, including complex discovery matters and motion practice, depositions, dispositive motions and alternative dispute resolution.

Julie Fritsch Earley was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in Los Angeles.

Earley's practice focuses primarily on catastrophic personal injury. She has extensive experience litigating cases in both federal and state courts, representing clients in areas including general negligence, personal injury, trucking, product liability, employment, and healthcare. She has experience handling all phases of litigation, including jury trials and arbitrations. She has also drafted and argued numerous successful dispositive motions, including several motions for summary judgment. Additionally, Earley drafted the appellate papers for an opinion discussing arbitration agreements for nursing home residents.

Kelley Harman was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in Los Angeles.

Harman has extensive litigation experience, including investigation, discovery, motion practice, mediation, and trial. She has co-chaired several personal injury jury trials as a defense attorney, receiving several defense verdicts. Her experience also includes representing government entities. Prior to joining Tyson & Mendes, Ms. Harman was in-house counsel to a large public agency in Los Angeles, where she handled all the agency’s litigation as both plaintiff and defendant, involving construction, contracts, and injury matters. Her practice focuses on general tort claims, including large catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death claims, premises liability, and product liability actions.

Darrell Nguyen was promoted to partner of Tyson & Mendes LLP in San Francisco.

Nguyen's practice focuses on complex multi-party construction litigation, real estate litigation, professional liability, landlord-tenant and habitability, personal injury, and general liability litigation. He has over 20 years of experience in civil litigation and has successfully handled hundreds of cases from inception through all phases of litigation, including trial, arbitration, and settlement.

Daniel R. Paluch joined Gipson Hoffman & Pancione as attorney in Century City, Los Angeles.

Paluch is an experienced litigator with a record of success representing businesses and individuals in complex litigation matters in state and federal court. His multi-faceted expertise covers torts, breach of contract cases, finance and lender liability disputes, residential and commercial real estate matters, intellectual property claims, consumer protection matters, family law, and trusts and estates controversies. He is also among the nation's most experienced Property Assessed Clean Energy ("PACE") financing litigators, having personally handled in excess of eighty PACE-related cases on behalf of PACE financing providers and their government partners.

Daniel A. Cody joined Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. as member in San Francisco.

Cody represents a diverse set of clients, such as hospitals, health systems, physicians, post-acute care entities, digital health and medical technology companies, life sciences organizations, and investors on a broad range of complex regulatory, compliance, privacy, and transactional matters. He assists clients in navigating evolving federal and state laws and regulations regarding pricing and reimbursement, licensing and accreditation, state corporate practice of medicine, privacy and consent, federal and state anti-kickback statutes, and federal and state self-referral provisions. He additionally oversees regulatory due diligence in mergers, acquisitions, and other transactional matters.

Marc H. Axelbaum joined Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. as member in San Francisco.

Axelbaum is a highly skilled litigator who handles a wide range of cases involving criminal and civil litigation, sensitive investigations, and disputes related to trusts and estates for affluent individuals. He has now become part of our team in San Francisco, where he takes on important cases for clients across various industries such as renewable energy, life sciences, health care, technology, financial services, real estate, and construction. Marc's clientele includes both US and international companies, executives, public officials, and individuals.

Alex G. Romain joined Jenner & Block LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Romain's practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, white-collar defense, and internal investigations. He has vast experience representing individuals and corporations in matters alleging campaign finance violations, obstruction of justice, consumer fraud, bank fraud, environmental pollution, theft, and fraudulent misappropriation. He also successfully represented the Baltimore Ravens and members of their senior personnel regarding the independent investigation that was conducted by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Additionally, he has successfully defended numerous law firms, accounting firms, and actuarial firms against claims of professional negligence and malpractice, and on conflicts issues.