Four Partners from Alschuler Grossman Stein and Kahan Join Firm
(June 19, 2006, Los Angeles) – LAWFUEL – Press Release Service – Steptoe & Johnson LLP, an international litigation, regulatory, and corporate law firm, announced today that four lateral partners will join the firm July 1 and open a new Steptoe office in Century City. Steptoe currently has an office in downtown Los Angeles with 19 lawyers who work primarily in the firm’s top-tier toxic tort and ERISA practices.
The new partners joining the firm are Mark A. Neubauer, Rebecca Edelson, Katessa Charles Davis, and Meredith M. Moss, all formerly with Alschuler Grossman Stein and Kahan LLP in Santa Monica.
“We are delighted to welcome four strong litigators who will further bolster our capabilities and reputation on the West Coast,” said Roger Warin, Steptoe’s Chairman. “Our new colleagues will enhance the firm’s longstanding reputation in national and international litigation and dispute resolution, as well as augment our employment and labor law capabilities throughout the United States.”
Lawrence Riff, Managing Partner of Steptoe’s downtown LA office said, “We’ve been looking for the right fit of practice, personality and professionalism, and these folks’ joining us is a home run on all counts.”
Neubauer is a member of Alschuler’s executive and compensation committees, along with serving as co-chair of its Business Litigation Department. A trial attorney with special emphasis in securities, entertainment, employment, business, real estate, and commercial law, his trial experience includes both state and federal matters for clients that include many of the nation’s largest corporations. Within the past six months, Neubauer won a significant arbitration award and successfully defended a two and half week specific performance real estate trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court in addition to prevailing in two published opinions from the California Court of Appeals.
“It is not often that one has the unique opportunity to open a new office for a top-tier firm such as Steptoe,” he said. “I have known several of the Steptoe partners from years of ABA work. It is a lawyer’s law firm—skillful trial lawyers and transactional practitioners, who still place great stock in the basic core values that make our profession so rewarding. ”
Active in national, state and local bar activities, Neubauer is a former president of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, chair of the State Bar Litigation Section and assistant vice-president of the Los Angeles County Bar. A past editor of the ABA’s Litigation Journal, he is just completing his third term on the ABA Journal’s Board of Editors and co-chaired the ABA Litigation Section’s Annual Meeting here in Los Angeles this past April. Neubauer is listed in Best Lawyers in America and the Super Lawyers lists of top litigators.
Mr. Neubauer received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and his law degree in 1976 from UCLA.
Ms. Edelson’s practice emphasizes intellectual property, including trade secrets, trade dress, trademark, patent and copyright; unfair competition, including broad experience in all phases of state and federal litigation. A leading practitioner in the area of trade secret litigation, she recently co-authored the State Bar of California treatise, Trade Secret Litigation and Protection in California. She also recently served a term as a chair of the executive committee of the State Bar’s Intellectual Property Section.
“The 15-plus years spent building a practice at Alschuler Grossman have given me a tremendous foundation for the future and it is very difficult to leave my friends and mentors there,” said Ms. Edelson. “But, I look forward to this new opportunity with Steptoe and expanding my intellectual property practice with Steptoe’s diverse national and international client base.”
She is a 1983 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a 1990 graduate of the UCLA Law School.
Ms. Davis’ practice focuses on commercial and employment disputes, including breach of contract, wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, and unfair competition claims. She has experience in a broad range of industries, from manufacturing to entertainment, and has jury trial experience in both state and federal court.
A past president of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles, Ms. Davis is a past trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the President-Elect of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation and a member of the ABA’s Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity.
Ms. Davis received her B.A. in Political Science in 1985 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her J.D. in 1989 from Georgetown University Law Center.
“We join a team of LA based Steptoe attorneys who already do some of the highest stakes, highest profile litigation,” said Ms. Davis. “Our group will provide not only additional breadth of litigation support, but other business counsel in the employment and IP areas.”
Ms. Moss’ practice includes appeals, employment litigation and counseling, as well as litigating unfair competition, bankruptcy, entertainment and other business disputes. She has represented large national and multinational corporations, entertainment production companies, manufacturing and technology companies, and high net worth individuals.
Ms. Moss received her B.A. in Political Science summa cum laude from Pepperdine University in 1993. She graduated in 1996 from the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2004 and 2005, she was named a “Rising Star” by Law & Politics and Los Angeles Magazine.
“Joining forces with the outstanding lawyers at Steptoe opens exciting new horizons for our team,” Ms. Moss said. “We look forward eagerly to the opportunities ahead as we launch the Century City office of Steptoe & Johnson.”
Ms. Moss and Mr. Neubauer recently received the ACLU Foundation’s Pro Bono Civil Rights Award in recognition of their work for the Plaintiffs in the Harris v. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors lawsuit, in which the Ninth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction prohibiting the County of Los Angeles from reducing the hospital services available to the County’s indigent residents at County-USC Medical Center and from closing the famous Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.
“The toughest part of this decision is that we will miss our many friends and colleagues at the Alschuler firm, whom we are sure will continue their past success,” Neubauer said. “But the challenges and excitement of the new Steptoe office were too attractive of an opportunity to pass up.”
Steptoe’s new Century City office will be located in the Fox Plaza building at 2121 Avenue of the Stars, in the heart of one of the world’s premiere business districts. This will be the seventh office for Steptoe, which currently has offices in downtown Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Phoenix, London and Brussels.
