Corporate and securities attorney TRAVIS LEACH has joined Ballard Spahr’s mergers and acquisitions and private equity groups. Leach joins as a partner in the firm’s Phoenix office and was last a member with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix.
Chadbourne & Parke has bolstered its Mexico City branch with a new partner and counsel. JOSE ANTONIO PRADO joins as an international partner to work on finance and mergers and acquisition matters with an emphasis on the energy industry. He previously held an in-house position as general counsel for Mexico electric facility Comision Federal de Electricidad. Also recently hired is labor and employment attorney LESLIE PALMA, who joins as international counsel. She was last a senior associate with Mexico Citybased firm Basham, Ringe y Correa.
JAMIE LEIGH has left Latham & Watkins, where she was a partner, for Cooley. Leigh is based in Cooley’s San Francisco office as a partner in the mergers and acquisitions practice.
Former assistant U.S. attorney DANIEL COLLINS has returned to private practice and joined Drinker Biddle & Reath as a partner in its commercial litigation practice. Residing in the firm’s Chicago office, Collins will focus on representing clients in responding to government inquiries. Before leaving the U.S. attorney’s office, Collins recently prosecuted international terrorist David Headley for his role in terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.
Edwards Wildman Palmer has welcomed JOHN FUSCO as a new partner in its Stamford, Connecticut, office in the business law department. Fusco last worked at Shipman & Goodwin, where he was a partner focusing on international trade and government contracting, as well and import and export matters.
Goodwin Procter has added PAUL LYONS as a partner to its real estate practice in London, where he will focus on real estate debt finance. Lyons has spent the past 10 years with Travers Smith as a partner in the firm’s banking practice.
San Franciscobased Gordon & Rees is opening an office in Philadelphia with eight partners from Cozen OConnors insurance and commercial litigation teams. WILLIAM SHELLEY, formerly chairman of Cozen O’Connor’s global insurance group, will serve as the new office’s managing partner. Former senior members JOSHUA WALL and ANN THORNTON FIELD also joined Gordon & Rees as partners, along with former Cozen O’Connor members JOSEPH ARNOLD, JACOB COHN, TYLER HAVEY, JAMES ROBINSON, and CATHERINE SLAVIN. Sibling publication The Legal Intelligencer reports that Gordon & Rees expects between nine and 12 lawyers total to move to the firm from Cozen.
Hogan Lovells has expanded its oil, gas, and natural resources practice in Denver with two new hires. SCOT ANDERSON, who joins as partner, was previously a partner with Davis Graham & Stubbs. DAVID BRODY, last a partner with Patton Boggs, will now be working with the energy and natural resources group as counsel.
J. ALLEN MAINES has left Paul Hastings, where he was a partner and cochair of the firm’s global litigation department, to join Holland & Knight as a partner in Atlanta. Maines’s practice focuses on commercial litigation.
Jackson Lewis opened a new office in Tampa, the firm’s fourth location in Florida. To lead the firm’s new branch, Jackson Lewis has hired managing partner BARNETT BROOKS, formerly the head of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart’s Tampa office. Also hired to work in Jackson Lewis’s new office as a partner is labor and employment lawyer JAY LECHNER from Greenberg Traurig. Finally, MONICA WILLIAMS, formerly counsel at Ogletree Deakins, joins Jackson Lewis as counsel to defend and advise clients in employment-related disputes.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has continued the expansion of its litigation team with the addition of intellectual property litigator ERIC NAMROW as a partner. Namrow was last a partner with O’Melveny & Myers, where he specialized in dealing with cases before the International Trade Commission.
Intellectual property boutique Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg has hired former Winston & Strawn partner MARCUS HALL to its Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. A partner, Hall will focus on intellectual property and commercial litigation.
Reed Smith has welcomed DENISE OBROCHTA to its Chicago office as a counsel in the firm’s state tax practice. Prior to joining Reed Smith, Obrochta was the director of state and local tax at Navistar Inc., an eco-friendly manufacturer of commercial vehicles.
ROBERT PARKER has joined intellectual property boutique Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck from the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & McKenzie, where he had been a partner since May. Parker joins Figg as a member of its litigation team and will focus his work on matters centered around intellectual property, technology, regulatory, and international commercial issues.
TONY MOU has joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as a partner in the firm’s corporate practice in Shanghai, where he will advise clients operating in China on corporate and transactional matters. Mou was previously with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he was a partner.
Thompson & Knight made two new hires in its New York office: GREGG BERMAN joins the firm’s corporate and securities practice as a partner, and JOSEPH SARCINELLA joins as counsel in the real estate and banking practice. Before joining Thompson & Knight, Berman was a partner at Fulbright & Jarworski, while Sarcinella practiced with Arent Fox as a partner in the New York office.
JAMES ARDEN BARNETT, a retired rear admiral and former chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for the Federal Communications Commission, is now with Venable in Washington, D.C. Barnett joins as a partner in the cyber security practice and cochair of the firm’s telecommunications group. Most recently, Barnett was senior vice president of national security policy at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a science and technology think tank.
The Churn is compiled from law firm releases and announcements. Moves based on our own reporting will note this. Please send all announcements and news releases to [email protected].
