Alston L. Lew was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco.

Lew represents clients in matters related to business law, professional liability and insurance defense. He brings a wealth of knowledge in variety of matter types including construction defect; trade secret, trademark and copyright disputes; class actions; product liability; toxic tort; privacy; personal injury; insurance defense; and bad faith insurance claims. He has also helped to defend clients related to federal government (DOJ and BSEE) subpoenas for possible regulatory and criminal violations.

Claire E. Bellefleur was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco & Seattle.

Bellefleur's primary practice consists of representing fiduciaries and beneficiaries in Washington State's Title 11 rules and California State's Probate Code, including trust and probate litigation, trust and probate administration and conservatorships. She develops personalized estate plans, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, status of property agreements and other end of life documents, for individuals and families. She has also defended lay fiduciaries against breach of duty claims and mitigated provable damages.

Adrian P. Sacharski was promoted to director of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. in San Francisco.

Sacharski counsels clients in a variety of matters related to business law, intellectual property, professional liability, and all forms of civil litigation. Adrian has significant trial experience in real property litigation, commercial and residential construction defects and engineering.

Brook T. Barnes joined Snell & Wilmer LLP as partner in San Diego.

Barnes counsels and represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment litigation including claims for improper wage deductions, failure to pay wages, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide meal periods and rest breaks, misclassification of employees, inaccurate wage statements, commission calculations, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims, class actions, wrongful termination, and retaliatory and discriminatory employment actions.

Andrew F. Kirtley was promoted to partner of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP in Burlingame.

Kirtley spent several years as an attorney in the District of Columbia, where he worked at a tenants' rights law firm, the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, and a boutique law firm specializing in federal environmental and civil rights litigation.

Marina Bogotad joined Munck Wilson Mandala as partner in Los Angeles.

Bogorad is well-known for her attention to detail and flexibility to adapt to different industries in complex litigation, including entertainment, engineering, and finance. She leads efforts in case-dispositive and appellate briefings, court appearances, and client interaction. Her fluency in Russian also gives her an advantage in handling various international matters

Heather Marie Vigil was promoted to office managing shareholder of Littler Mendelson P.C. in Irvine.

Vigil will also maintain her litigation practice that is focused on international employment law, wage and hour matters, and privacy and data security issues. She defends employers in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and administrative hearings before agencies such as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Vigil also regularly conducts employee and management training sessions and counsels small, medium-sized, and multinational employers on workplace investigations, terminations, disciplinary actions, and other issues arising under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and California Labor Code.

Brad H. Pace was promoted to partner of Kennedys Law LLP in San Francisco.

Pace has extensive experience handling admiralty and maritime litigation, as well as aviation litigation, and is involved in all aspects of the process from intake to resolution. His background in the maritime industry as a ship captain, officer, engineer, and pilot, enables him to deeply understand the issues his clients face and provide them with solutions tailored to their situations. He also advises clients in a wide range of insurance matters, including marine insurance and reinsurance, and insurance coverage. In addition, Pace handles a wide variety of yacht transactional work.

Xiaofan (Frank) Yang, Ph.D. was promoted to partner of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP in San Diego.

Yang provides comprehensive IP strategic counseling to public and private biotechnology, pharmaceutical, digital health and medical device companies. His patent counseling and prosecution experience creates and protects IP assets as primary value propositions for growth enterprises in all stages of business, from proof of concept to clinical development, regulatory approval and product launch. He is also experienced in conducting due diligence in complex venture financings, public offerings, partnering/licensing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. He has a global client base, including companies and investors in U.S., Europe, and Asia. After obtaining his B.S. in polymer chemistry and PhD in organic synthesis, he worked as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry for more than four years before becoming a patent practitioner in 2006.

David S. Killoran joined Dykema as member in Los Angeles.

Killoran has over three decades of experience as trial and appellate counsel to some of the world's foremost automotive companies. He has handled hundreds of high-exposure cases against some of the country's top plaintiff lawyers and he has experience as national coordinating counsel for one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers. Killoran's practice includes a wide range of product liability cases involving a variety of alleged defects in electronic devices, mechanical systems, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, along with matters stemming from warnings, trade secrets, supplier indemnity, class actions, and consumer fraud. He also counsels clients on product safety, risk management, and commercial law matters.

Judge Claudia J. Silbar joined Judicate West as neutral in Santa Ana.

Appointed by then-Governor Gray Davis in 2001, Judge Silbar served on the Superior Court bench for 21 years, almost exclusively in family law. She was named "Judge of the Year" by the Orange County Bar Association's Family Law Section in 2020 and in 2007.

Koren Bell joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Bell has been lead counsel in some of the country's most complex and highly publicized trials and appeals, including in a case she argued at the U.S. Supreme Court. In courtrooms across the country, she has handled high stakes matters for prominent clients across a range of industries in a variety of areas, from business disputes to product liability, defamation to civil rights, and all manner of white-collar crime.

Jaya K. Reddy joined Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel as attorney in Pleasanton.

Reddy's practice focuses on complex financial matters, closely-held business interests, large estates, child custody, child support and spousal support disputes, and prenuptial agreements. She is a successful negotiator and trial advocate appearing in court throughout California and was named a "Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Star" in 2022.

Rachel Reddick joined Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP as attorney investigator in Monterey.

Reddick specializes in creating healthy workplace and school environments by delivering thorough and impartial investigations and by providing trainings, climate surveys and assessments on employment-related issues, such as harassment prevention and labor laws compliance. Prior to joining the private sector, she managed a team practicing before the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and oversaw investigations on one of the largest criminal cases in U.S. history. Additionally, she served in the U.S. Congress as a Defense Fellow and also worked for a congressperson sitting on the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, where she assisted in several high-profile congressional investigations. Early on in her career, Reddick spent time in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps, where she litigated at the trial and appellate level, and served as general counsel to commanding officers both onshore and at sea, advising on employee matters and overseeing investigations.

Rudy Kim joined Paul Hastings LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Kim has over 20 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes IP and technology-related litigation involving patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and complex commercial claims in federal district and appellate courts, in private arbitration, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). He has also successfully tried criminal jury cases with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and regularly teaches Trial Advocacy classes at Stanford Law School.

Erik Roper joined Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP as attorney investigator in Sacramento.

Roper focuses on conducting fair, thorough, and impartial workplace investigations to support organizations' ability to maintain healthy, productive work environments and avoid lawsuit disruptions. His legal expertise includes handling a wide variety of employment law matters, primarily those involving claims of discrimination against protected classes, whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination, and defamation. Before joining OIG, he counseled and represented plaintiffs in employment lawsuits, and he also spent time enforcing the federal Clean Water Act as an environmental attorney. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Roper served in the U.S. Army as a financial specialist.

Douglas K. Fransham joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as associate in MPBF (Sacramento).

Fransham's practice areas include civil litigation and business law. He has experience in a wide variety of matters including securities fraud, real estate law and insurance. He has handled numerous financial crimes prosecutions from preliminary hearing through jury trial. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a deputy district attorney in El Dorado County assigned to the Special Prosecutions Unit and responsible for the Civil Asset Forfeiture case load.

Joan K. Archer joined Carlton Fields as of counsel in Los Angeles.

Archer focuses her practice on intellectual property portfolio development and litigation, as well as complex business disputes. She provides legal counsel on a wide range of issues, including global data privacy and protection, protection of intellectual property, trade secret defense and protection, noncompete agreements and litigation, internal risk management and compliance, licensing, marketing, and general corporate strategy. She has deep experience in complex technology commercial agreements and licensing, with a special focus on data privacy, as well as Canadian cross-border litigation and compliance strategies and other international issues.

Michael Fluhr was promoted to partner of DLA Piper in San Francisco.

Fluhr counsels and defends companies in a wide variety of complex, commercial disputes. Michael focuses his practice on the financial sector, including the blockchain and digital asset space, where he advises and defends exchanges, issuers, NFT platforms and creators, and related companies.

Henry Cheng was promoted to partner of DLA Piper in San Francisco.

Cheng focuses his practice on tax controversies and litigation as well as international tax planning and operational structuring. He has successfully represented numerous clients in all aspects of complex civil tax disputes at the federal, state and local levels.

Philipp Tsukanov was promoted to partner of DLA Piper in Palo Alto.

Tsukanov focuses on domestic and international M&A transactions and represents strategic and private equity buyers, public and private company sellers, and stockholders. He advises clients on all aspects of the deal process, including transaction structuring, drafting and negotiating acquisition and related agreements, and post-acquisition integration planning. He represents companies across a wide range of industries, from technology and healthcare to manufacturing and banking.

Art Silbergeld joined Thompson Coburn LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Silbergeld has defended numerous employers in individual and class action lawsuits, including federal and state bench and jury trials. He regularly represents large and mid-sized corporations in these matters, and has first-chaired more than 100 employment litigations, arbitrations and NLRB trials.

Kamran Salour joined Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP as partner in Costa Mesa.

Salour is co-chair of the firm's Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice. With more than 15 years of experience, Salour advises clients on a full range of complex privacy and cybersecurity matters. He regularly works with businesses to design proactive cybersecurity measures, create pre-incident response plans, prepare vendor contracts, and comply with applicable laws and regulations. When clients experience cyber incidents, he draws upon his extensive experience to help them successfully navigate the incident response process, including implementing response notification procedures, responding to regulatory investigations, managing state and federal litigation, as well as evaluating and modifying policies to protect against a future event.

David Crawford joined Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves and Savitch LLP as partner in San Diego.

Crawford focuses on providing legal counsel on a wide array of real estate transactions in the U.S. and globally, including joint ventures, financing, development, construction, project finance, clean energy, leasing and regulatory issues (including licensing, RESPA, and fair housing); as he puts it, "anything connected to dirt, sticks and bricks." He represents individuals, startups and public companies in multiple industries including life sciences, tech, clean energy, aerospace, consumer products, hospitality, beverage, and retail, as well as portfolio companies and venture capitalists. His projects include leasing, development, construction, acquisition and dispositions of headquarters offices, manufacturing facilities, R&D labs, agricultural production facilities, hotels, distilleries and wineries, mixed-use developments and various other facilities. He facilitates real estate financing for both borrowers and lenders, including portfolio lending, construction loans, term facilities, re-financings and synthetic leases, as well as transactions with mixed collateral. He also negotiates feedstock, off-take, EPC and other agreements related to the development and financing of clean energy and manufacturing facilities.

Ernie A. Ocampo was promoted to office managing partner of Reed Smith LLP in Century City.

Ocampo's practice covers a broad range of transactional matters, including equity and debt financings, formation and corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and day-to-day legal matters. In addition to acting as outside corporate counsel for his clients, Ernie advises entertainment clients in connection with investments, joint ventures, and business launches, and advises real estate clients on acquisitions and development of renewable energy facilities and commercial properties.

Steven M. Selna joined Benesch as partner in San Francisco.

With more than 25 years of litigation experience, Selna is focused on complex commercial litigation, product liability litigation and class actions. He has significant experience serving as national counsel on life science product liability matters and mass tort claims, and he has also defended actions brought by state attorneys general, alleging violation of unfair trade practice act statutes and consumer fraud.

Malgorzata "Gosia" A. Kulczycka joined Patterson Sheridan LLP as partner in San Jose.

Kulczycka has a unique background as an inventor turned IP lawyer allows for a deep understanding of the patent process and the importance of protecting intellectual property. Her expertise covers a wide range of IP areas and technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, communication technologies, complex software, computer networks and graphics, and electronics.

Jeff Schenk joined Jones Day as partner in Silicon Valley.

Schenk spent the last 17 years working for the Department of Justice at the intersection of regulatory and criminal enforcement. For more than 15 years, he served as a federal prosecutor and supervisory attorney in Northern California, where he led government investigations and prosecutions of a number of complex and high-profile matters. He was the lead trial lawyer in recent cases that captured international attention related to Silicon Valley startup Theranos, Inc., including the investigation of the company and the successful indictments and convictions of its two leaders, Elizabeth Holmes (Founder, Chairwoman, and CEO), and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani (President and COO).

Drake A. Mirsch joined Armstrong Teasdale LLP as associate in Orange County.

Mirsch is a litigation associate whose practice focuses on all aspects of employment law. Drake regularly represents employers in all phases of litigation, including pre-litigation negotiations, dispositive motions, and appeals. He also advises clients in multiple industries on a broad range of employment issues, employment practices and policies, and responding to administrative charges.