Deepak Nanda joined Sidley Austin LLP as a partner in Century City. The move was Apr. 15, 2025.

Nanda focuses on transactional and securities matters, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, privatization transactions, leveraged recapitalizations, and buyouts; venture capital and private equity fund formation and portfolio company investment; public and private offerings of equity and debt securities; public corporation securities laws and reporting compliance; and structured finance transactions.

Zack Faigen was promoted to partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Los Angeles. The promotion is effective Apr. 2, 2025.

Faigen practices complex civil litigation in state and federal court, representing clients in a wide range of cases, including securities and other class action litigation, shareholder derivative actions, antitrust lawsuits, contract disputes and fraud claims. He has represented a wide array of clients in a variety of industries, including semiconductors, food and beverage, healthcare, technology, accounting, and family foundations. Faigen is a member of the Skadden's Los Angeles office's Hiring Committee. He graduated from UCLA School of Law in 2013 and from Princeton University in 2005.

Breyon "Bree" Davis joined FisherBroyles LLP   as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Apr. 16, 2025.

Davis brings nearly 15 years of experience in civil pretrial and trial litigation to FisherBroyles, with a background in commercial, employment, and entertainment law. Licensed in both Washington and California, she launched her solo practice in 2010 and has represented clients across industries such as hospitality, real estate, entertainment, and product development. Her litigation experience spans state and federal courts and includes partnership disputes, trade secret claims, contract breaches, and business torts. Notably, she led a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against a major entertainment union, successfully advancing it to appellate mediation. She has also handled commercial lease negotiations, unlawful detainers, premises liability, and labor and employment matters.

Brandon Rainey joined Frost Brown Todd as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Apr. 14, 2025.

As an employment litigation defense lawyer, Rainey's practice consists of defending discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful termination, and whistleblower claims from start to finish, including pre-litigation investigations, demand letter responses, dispositive motions, defense strategy, written discovery and depositions, witness preparation, settlements, state and federal jury and bench trials and appeals, as well as the implementation of risk management measures. He also has specific experience handling disputes involving machine learning and advertising technologies, systems, and products.

Tyler J. San Juan was promoted to partner of Frassetto Law LLP in San Francisco & Los Angeles. The promotion is effective Jan. 1, 2025.

San Juan specializes in defense of personal injury, product liability, and premises liability claims and has rapidly developed recognition from the bench and bar as a skilled, determined, and effective advocate for the firm's clients.

Andrew J. McKeon joined Thompson Coburn LLP as a partner in Century City. The move was Apr. 1, 2025.

McKeon previously was a partner at Thompson Coburn from 2023 to 2024. His practice focuses on litigation involving trade secrets, fiduciary relationships, partnership disputes, business competition torts, and real estate. He represents clients in state and federal courts across the country through all phases of litigation, including appeals.

McKeon obtained his law degree from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Verna Adams joined ADR Services Inc. as a neutral in San Francisco. The move was Apr. 11, 2025.

Adams, a retired Marin County Superior Court judge with more than 20 years on the bench, is a nationally recognized expert in family law and probate mediation. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she served in every court division but made her most significant impact during 14 years in Unified Family Law Court and eight in Probate. Adams pioneered California's first Interdisciplinary Settlement Conference program, creating a model for resolving high-conflict custody disputes through collaboration. Before her 1999 judicial appointment, she practiced as a Certified Family Law Specialist whose work in Marriage of Epstein (1979) established reimbursement principles now codified in California law. Adams also founded Marin's Mental Health and Domestic Violence Courts and the Legal Self-Help Center, reflecting her commitment to accessible justice and reducing adversarial harm in family matters.

Kenji Funahashi joined DLA Piper LLP as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Apr. 8, 2025.

Funahashi helps entrepreneurs, corporations, strategic investors, angel investors, venture capital funds, and private equity funds engaged in business operations in California and globally. He works on a wide range of corporate finance matters, from start-up companies obtaining angel financing to multi-billion-dollar transactions for multinational and Fortune 500 companies. He has handled more than US$10 billion in financings,

Kristin Reyna DeHart joined Buchalter as a shareholder in San Diego.

Kristin Reyna-DeHart represents a wide range of clients, including corporations, manufacturers, government contractors, product suppliers, industrial operations, property owners and managers, homeowners' associations, construction companies, and environmental abatement companies. She has extensive experience handling environmental claims across California, involving soil, groundwater, well, and sediment contamination, stormwater issues, mold and asbestos contamination, crop loss claims, and exposure to various toxic substances.

Beyond litigation, Reyna DeHart advises clients on environmental compliance, including property contamination, waste management, and recycling programs. She regularly assists with environmental investigations and remediation efforts and represents clients in negotiations with regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and Regional Water Quality Control Boards.

Michelle A. Clark joined Alston & Bird LLP as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Apr. 8, 2025.

Clark focuses her practice on advising emerging technology companies in intellectual property matters, including patent, trade secret, contract, unfair competition, inventorship, and a host of other commercial disputes.

Richard E. Wirick joined Musick Peeler & Garrett LLP as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Mar. 10, 2025.

With extensive experience in insurance coverage and opinion work, Wirick advises insurers on complex coverage disputes involving first- and third-party policies. He has represented major industry carriers in high-exposure cases, providing strategic guidance on underwriting, drafting policy forms, and navigating declaratory relief actions and ADR proceedings. Wirick has decades of experience counseling insurers and reinsurers, as well as defending professionals--including attorneys, accountants, and insurance brokers--in liability matters. His practice also includes representing municipalities in labor and employment disputes.

Robert A. Bailey joined Musick Peeler & Garrett LLP as a partner in Los Angeles.

Bailey has tried dozens of bench and jury trials to verdict, representing clients from individuals to Fortune 100 companies in various civil disputes. His business litigation experience covers financial services, real estate, trusts and estates, class actions, toxic torts, insurance coverage, bankruptcy and complex contractual and tort actions. Bailey began his legal career as a Navy Judge Advocate, working on high-profile cases that gained national media attention. One case required him to testify before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. During his Navy service, the Syracuse Journal of International Law published his article on the law of war.

Bambo Obaro is promoted to co-managing partner of the Silicon Valley office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

Obaro, a member of the firm's Complex Commercial Litigation practice, joined longstanding co-managing partner Craig Adas in the role.

Bambo, who has been a prominent figure in the California legal market for years, litigates a wide array of commercial issues and disputes in state and federal courts, as well as arbitration proceedings. He has extensive experience at the trial and appellate levels in matters involving consumer class actions, alleged violations of state deceptive trade practice acts, product liability, breach of contract, employment disputes, and securities fraud.

Stacey Sprenkel joined Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Apr. 3, 2025.

Sprenkel is a thought leader in the fast-changing environmental, social, and governance space. She combines ethics, compliance, anti-corruption, and sustainability expertise with a background in human rights--offering clients a comprehensive suite of services aimed at proactive risk mitigation. She also conducts internal investigations when issues do arise.

Mike A. Pestana joined Paul Hastings LLC as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Apr. 2, 2025.

Pestana regularly provides strategic business and legal advice to entrepreneurs and startups as outside general counsel. His clients represent the full range of the startup ecosystem, from one-person companies to unicorns preparing for public offerings. He represents early- and late-stage startups throughout all stages of their life cycle, along with numerous venture investors. Pestana often leads strategic deals, including private financings, secondary transactions, tender offers, recapitalizations and acquisitions.

Michelle Meyers was promoted to partner of Singleton Schreiber in Sacramento.

Meyers joined Singleton Schreiber in 2023 and quickly emerged as a force in insurance recovery and fire litigation. A former deputy attorney for the California Department of Transportation, she brings decades of experience handling high-stakes, complex cases affecting Californians.

She currently leads two class action lawsuits targeting insurance industry practices around policy nonrenewals. In Badin v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (San Diego County), she represents policyholders dropped based on alleged property issues identified via aerial imagery--often without cause or recourse. In Ginsberg et al. v. Safeco Insurance Company of America et al. (Los Angeles County), she advocates for homeowners similarly impacted by mischaracterized property conditions. Both cases seek to hold Liberty Mutual and its subsidiaries accountable for opaque, potentially unlawful practices and to protect policyholders across fire-prone California.

Courtland Chillingworth joined Knox Ricksen LLP as a counsel in Walnut Creek. The move was Apr. 1, 2025.

Chillingworth has over 15 years of experience representing clients in commercial and personal injury litigation matters. In addition to leading class action plaintiff lawsuits in fraud disputes, he has also defended class action certifications in consumer fraud and product liability cases.

Bonnie Lau joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Mar. 31, 2025.

Lau has successfully tried many cases to verdict, including serving as lead trial counsel in a high-stakes antitrust class action jury trial involving over $1 billion in potential exposure. She has represented companies in antitrust and related complex litigation, handling cases involving price-fixing, wage-fixing, no-poach conduct, output suppression, monopolization, refusal to deal, predatory pricing, and group boycotts. Additionally, she has prosecuted antitrust counterclaims in patent infringement and intellectual property (IP) matters. Lau is also well-versed in representing clients in complex litigation and alternative dispute resolution matters involving unfair competition, RICO, TCPA, and IP claims.

D. Andrew Quigley was promoted to partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Los Angeles. The promotion is effective Apr. 1, 2025.

Quigley's practice focuses on employment litigation, employment advice, and counseling. He is a partner on the labor and employment team. He represents employers in state and federal courts and in administrative proceedings.

Jacob J. Struck was promoted to partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Los Angeles. The promotion is effective Jan. 4, 2025.

Struck represents multinational corporate clients in a wide array of complex commercial litigation disputes across all industries, including retail and consumer products, energy, media and entertainment, technology, and financial services.

Steve Y. Yoo joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Apr. 2, 2025.

Yoo's practice focuses on the structuring, formation and operation of private equity funds. Yoo has advised on the formation and fundraising of more than 80 funds, with total capital commitments exceeding $100 billion. Yoo also focuses on continuation funds and GP-led secondary transactions. He has advised numerous private equity firms, including Aurora Capital Partners, Clearlake Capital Group, Diversis Capital, HGGC, K1 Investment Management, LightBay Capital and Lovell Minnick Partners.

Phil Barilovits joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP as a partner in Sacramento. The move was Apr. 3, 2025.

Barilovits has more than 20 years of experience in representing clients in litigation, before federal and state governmental agencies, and in commercial transactions. He takes lead roles in all phases of the litigation process, from pre-suit investigations and negotiations, dispositive motions practice, to trial and appeal. He has argued before California state and federal trial courts, as well as state and federal appellate courts. Barilovits negotiates for and represents clients before the International Trade Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the California Department of Corporations, and the California Medical Board.

Emily Fulham joined Frost LLP as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Apr. 1, 2025.

Fulham is a seasoned intellectual property attorney with years of in-house experience advising major media and entertainment clients with global portfolios. She emphasizes litigation avoidance and approaches risk with practical, creative solutions that allow her clients to meet their business goals even in the most complex scenarios

Peggy Dayton joined Umhofer, Mitchell & King as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Apr. 1, 2025.

Dayton brings extensive experience in high-stakes litigation, handling matters from trial through appeal in both state and federal courts. Some of Dayton's notable representations include: successfully representing a brand management company in an arbitration over unpaid royalties; winning a complete defense verdict in a jury trial in the Central District of California; defeating class certification in a consumer fraud case against a drug rehabilitation provider; securing a post-indictment dismissal in a trade secrets theft case; and enforcing contractual religious arbitration and defending the ruling on appeal.

A graduate of Stanford Law School, Dayton earned her J.D. after completing her undergraduate studies summa cum laude at Duke University.

Law Office of Karen J. Sloat in Palm Desert changes name to Sloat Law Group

Comprised of lawyers who have a combined 100 years of experience, Sloat Law Group represents individuals and businesses in all types of employment litigation in the Inland Empire and throughout the state. The firm's attorneys focus on wage and hour disputes, discrimination and harassment claims, contracts and agreements, and worker misclassification. Sloat Law Group also counsels companies of all sizes on issues related to their workforce, providing "workplace solutions" by triaging personnel issues and crises, creating and revising employee handbooks and key personnel forms, developing workplace violence prevention plans, and continually helping companies respond to and comply with everchanging labor laws. The firm also provides mediation services.

Sheri Flame Eisner was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel of JAMS. The promotion is effective Mar. 1, 2025.

Having served the organization for over 15 years, Eisner will continue to oversee all legal matters, panel quality, risk management and ethics in her role as executive vice president and general counsel. She advises JAMS on litigation risks, providing preventive counseling with respect to the legal risks associated with business practices, developing strategy with both inside and outside counsel in response to civil litigation and regulatory inquiries, and cost-effectively managing the resources required to address those matters. Additionally, she works closely with the JAMS Institute, which provides JAMS' panel of neutrals with training on all ADR topics.

Daniel Lopez joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as a partner in San Francisco.

Lopez will be part of Willkie's Private Equity Practice Group. He advises funds and their portfolio companies on various strategic private equity transactions, including leveraged buyouts, dispositions, carveouts, debt financings, growth equity investments and secondary transactions. He has particular experience working with sponsors in the tech and life sciences sectors. Lopez also advises boards, special committees, investors and other key stakeholders on fiduciary duty, securities law, corporate governance and equity compensation matters.

Jill M. Manning joined JAMS as a neutral in San Francisco. The move was Mar. 24, 2025.

Manning has almost three decades of experience in complex litigation. Before founding The Manning Law Firm in 2024, she was a partner at Pearson Warshaw LLP from 2022 to 2024 and with Steyer Lowenthal Boodrookas Alvarez & Smith LLP from 2015 to 2022. In her litigation practice, she focused on antitrust and unfair competition law and represented clients in class action and complex litigation matters. With extensive knowledge of state and federal competition laws, she successfully litigated cases involving price fixing, tying, monopolies and unfair competition.

Manning will serve as a mediator, arbitrator, court- appointed neutral and neutral evaluator. She will be handling antitrust and competition, business and commercial, class action and mass torts, cybersecurity and privacy, education, employment, entertainment and sports, health care, and securities matters. She is available to conduct sessions in person, as well as virtually, for clients across the country and internationally.

Manning has successfully resolved complex cases in various roles, including as a neutral for the Northern District of California's Early Neutral Evaluation program, mediator for the Northern and Central Districts of California, and settlement conference facilitator for the Sonoma County Superior Court.