The Churn
October 10, 2008 6:34 PM
THE CHURN: Lateral Moves and Promotions in The Am Law 200
Posted by Rachel Breitman
Firms are continuing to boost their IP, anti-trust, and tax practices amidst a stock market freefall.
Baker & Daniels added Jay Sanders as an IP partner in the Indianapolis office. He was a partner with Saliwanchik Lloyd & Saliwanchik in Gainesville, Florida, where he practiced for 14 years. His expertise is patent portfolio management and license agreements, focusing on biochemistry, agricultural biotechnology, nutrition, and pharmaceuticals.
DLA Piper is certainly thinking globally, capitalizing on the potential for additional energy transactions in the gulf. The firm has paired up with Al Wagayan, Al Awadhi & Al Saif in Kuwait to launch DLA Piper Kuwait, focusing on corporate, commercial banking, and Islamic finance. DLA Piper already has offices in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai and Muscat.
Fulbright & Jaworski is hoping new tax partner William Bowers will pay dividends. He's rejoining the firm after spending two years as a senior counsel with the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy, where he focused on tax issues related to publicly traded hedge funds and private equity funds as corporations.
Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart added James McDonald as shareholder in the business litigation practice group of its Miami office. His background is in construction litigation and renewable energy.
Haynes and Boone is putting their trust in antitrust lawyer John Turner. He's a new partner in the firm's litigation and trial practice group, fresh from the Dallas office of Susman Godfrey. Turner will focus on securities, contracts, fraud, and trade secret matters.
To Dimitri Nionakis, Howrey must feel like home sweet home. He rejoined the firm's securities litigation, government enforcement, white collar defense, and antitrust practice. He had previously served as the firm's pro bono co-chair and a member of the hiring committee before jumping ship in 2005. In the interim, Nionakis was a partner in the litigation group at Alston & Bird and DLA Piper.
Latham & Watkins has recruited a seven-partner corporate team from Allen & Overy's Hong Kong office, reports sibling publication Legal Week. The group includes highly-rated Asia corporate chief Michael Liu and China group head Kenneth Chan. The moves leave just four partners in Allen & Overy's Hong Kong corporate group.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo's motto might as well be "safety first." That's why they added Quin Dodd, former chief of staff for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to their consumer product safety commission practice group in Washington, D.C.. The addition will allow the firm to better serve clients affected by the recent passage of the landmark product safety bill. Besides his law firm experience at Bracewell & Guiliani, Dodd founded the American Capitol Group, a government affairs firm, and was U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's legislative director.
Where did all the Heller Ehrman partners go? It seems some have hitched their wagons to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Orrick is adding 26 partners and one senior counsel from the recently dissolved Heller, as The Am Law Daily reported on Thursday. The group includes three previous Heller chairmen: Barry Levin, Robert Rosenfeld, and Larry Popofsky. Half of the partners moving to Orrick were from the firm's antitrust group.
Also getting in on the flow of Heller partners into the market: Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. The firm has signed on four new partners for its San Francisco office, bringing the total number of Heller lawyers who've joined Sheppard to 10. Peter Hecker, Neil Popovic, and Anna McLean will join the business trial practice group; Joanne Garvey joins the tax practice. Hecker has experience in consumer class action litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Popovic's practice includes international dispute resolution, consumer litigation and white collar criminal defense. McLean has defended companies in unfair business practice and products liability class actions. Garvey has represented clients in the United States Supreme Court and California court system on a variety of tax matters.
Steptoe & Johnson is getting ready for a new political administration in Washington, bringing James Bonham, senior Democratic strategist and former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, on as managing director of the firm's government affairs and public policy practice. Bonham is the founder of The Blue Donkey Group, Inc., a public affairs and political consulting firm.
Finally, White & Case just acquired some property from McDermott Will & Emery in the form of five new IP partners. Jack Lever (the cofounder of McDermott's IP, media and technology practice), Shamita Etienne-Cummings, and David Tennant will be based in the Washington, D.C. office. Bijal Vakil and Jennifer Yokoyama will be resident in Palo Alto.
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