SAN FRANCISCO, 12 July 2004 – LAWFUEL – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced today that 16 associates and 18 other professionals-in addition to eight partners announced June 21-will join Orrick from Clifford Chance’s West Coast offices. Including partners, of counsel, associates, staff, and an upcoming fall associate class of eight, Orrick is adding a total team of 50 professionals in San Francisco and Los Angeles from Clifford Chance.
“We are thrilled that these talented lawyers and staff have decided to join their former colleagues at Orrick,” said Chairman and CEO Ralph Baxter. “Having associates and staff join these partners at Orrick is key to maintaining the group’s excellent momentum and supporting its continued growth.”
“While we had a thriving practice at our previous firm, we believe that Orrick provides the opportunity, with its breadth of practice groups and depth of resources on the West Coast and worldwide, for us to accelerate our growth and to integrate our practice into an already dynamic national and international firm,” said Jim Burns, former head of Clifford Chance’s West Coast offices and now a partner at Orrick.
The firm’s litigation division now has approximately 240 lawyers focused on general litigation, securities litigation, IP, white collar criminal defense, and employment matters.
The incoming lawyers and staff will be reunited with the eight partners whose arrival at Orrick was announced on June 21st. The departure of the now Orrick partners from Clifford Chance, forced the closure of Clifford Chance’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.
In San Francisco, the new Orrick partners include Mike Torpey, who previously was co-head of Clifford Chance’s global securities litigation group and who will head Orrick’s securities litigation group; Jim Burns, who previously was managing partner of the firm’s West Coast practices; and general and securities litigation partners Karen Johnson-McKewan, James Kramer, Robert Varian and L. Christopher Vejnoska. Real estate partner Jerry J. Walsh and general and securities litigation partner Daniel Tyukody, Jr., joined Orrick’s Los Angeles office.
Recently, Orrick enhanced its West Coast litigation team with the addition of white collar criminal defense partners Melinda Haag and Walt Brown. Haag was the former Chief of the White Collar Crime Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. Products liability litigator Kathy Patterson also joined the San Francisco office, and in Los Angeles, the firm added Ed Woodsome and Barclay Edmundson, two senior litigation partners from Howrey Simon, and Chris Ruhland, former senior counsel at Disney.
