Susan Gelmis joined The Complex Appellate Litigation Group as a counsel in San Francisco.

Gelmis brings nearly four decades of experience from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she served on the court's central staff and worked closely with nearly every 9th Circuit judge, culminating with a decade of service as the Circuit's chief deputy clerk for operations. She also helped create the 9th Circuit's Pro Bono Program, a nationally recognized initiative that has served as a model for appellate pro bono programs across the nation. Gelmis is also a contributor and editor to the Rutter Guide's treatise on 9th Circuit Practice.

Kaitlin F. Bagby joined Morrison & Foerster LLP as a partner in Palo Alto.

Bagby advises high-growth technology companies throughout the full corporate lifecycle, from formation and early-stage and venture financings through mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings. She also represents leading venture capital investors in financings and other strategic transactions. She has deep relationships throughout the global venture ecosystem and significant experience advising founders and venture-backed startups, including those within the Y Combinator community.

Theresa Nolan joined Cozen O'Connor as a member in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 21, 2026.

Nolan focuses her practice on representing developers, architects, engineers, contractors, and other construction-industry-related entities in disputes arising from major infrastructure and commercial developments. She advises and represents clients throughout the entire dispute life cycle--from early risk assessment and strategic planning through discovery, expert evidence, dispositive proceedings, settlement, and hearings.

Andy Hutchison joined Alston & Bird as a partner in San Francisco.

Hutchison advises companies on resolving complex disputes and managing litigation risk in matters involving significant operational, regulatory, financial, and reputational exposure. His practice spans litigation, compliance, and risk management, enabling him to develop strategic solutions that protect legal and business interests. Andy represents clients in federal and state courts at the trial and appellate levels, as well as in mediations and arbitrations before the AAA, JAMS, and FINRA. Andy defends businesses against consumer protection and privacy class actions involving advertising, labeling, warranties, unfair competition, deceptive trade practices, and data privacy. He counsels companies in the food, beverage, cosmetics, and supplement industries on advertising, labeling, warranty, FDA, FTC, and Proposition 65 matters.

Devin Donohue joined Alston & Bird as a partner in Los Angeles.

Donohue represents companies, financial institutions, executives, and nonprofit organizations in complex commercial disputes, internal investigations, employment matters, and trade secret litigation. He advises clients through all stages of litigation and arbitration, helping them assess risk and pursue business-focused resolutions. Devin focuses his practice on commercial, trade secret, corporate governance, employment, and securities-related disputes in state and federal courts and before arbitration forums, including JAMS, AAA, and FINRA. He also counsels clients in sensitive internal investigations involving alleged misconduct, compliance concerns, trade secret misappropriation, workplace issues, and other business-critical matters.

Curtis M. Fiorini joined JAMS as a neutral in Sacramento. The move was Sept. 21, 2026.

Fiorini brings more than 30 years of legal experience, including over 15 years on the Sacramento County Superior Court. Based at the Sacramento Resolution Center, he will serve as a mediator, arbitrator and neutral evaluator in business and commercial, employment, personal injury, medical malpractice, real estate, construction defect, automotive, lemon law, and trusts and estates disputes. As a judge, he served as supervising judge for civil settlements and conducted hundreds of conferences involving personal injury, medical malpractice, business, commercial real estate, breach of contract, construction defect, lemon law, and employment matters.

Don Sullivan joined Ogletree Deakins as a shareholder in San Francisco. The move was Sept. 1, 2026.

Sullivan brings nearly 30 years of experience representing employers, employee benefit plans, fiduciaries, and plan sponsors in complex employment and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) matters. He regularly serves as lead counsel in employment and employee benefits litigation, including class, representative, and single-plaintiff matters involving wage and hour, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, and harassment claims under state and federal law. He also advises and represents employers in ERISA and non-ERISA disputes involving pension and welfare benefit plans, fiduciary obligations, and government investigations. He also counsels employers on workplace policies, employee training, and compliance strategies designed to reduce risk and prevent disputes before they arise.

Jennifer Goldstein joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as of counsel in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 14, 2026.

Goldstein represents clients in complex civil litigation matters involving consumer class actions, corporate breakups and partnership disputes, shareholder suits, investment fraud, real property disputes and breaches of contracts such as commercial leases, construction scopes of work and financing agreements. She works hand in glove with her clients to develop comprehensive, flexible litigation strategies that dovetail with her clients' business objectives. She implements those strategies from complaint through trial, seeking impactful discovery, taking key depositions and arguing dispositive pre-trial motions to create the conditions for a favorable resolution, either by way of settlement or judgment.

Nikhil Ramnaney joined V. James DeSimone Law as a counsel in Los Angeles.

Ramnaney has worked on multiple sides of the justice system. He has served as a prosecutor, represented public entities and law enforcement agencies in civil litigation, defended individuals as a Los Angeles County Public Defender, and investigated and prosecuted violations of federal civil rights laws for the United States Department of Justice. That breadth of experience provides him with an uncommon understanding of how government agencies, prosecutors, municipalities, law enforcement departments, and their attorneys investigate, evaluate, defend, and litigate serious cases.

Kevin Collins joined Sterlington as a partner in Sacramento.

Collins' practice spans complex civil litigation, including trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, antitrust, class actions, real estate, construction, land use, and mass torts. He regularly serves as lead counsel in multi‑party disputes and has extensive experience coordinating litigation strategy across parallel proceedings. He has also served in lead roles in complex federal receiverships.

Zack Thompson joined Buchalter as a counsel in Sacramento.

Thompson has represented businesses across many industries, from small retail and hospitality companies to large financial institutions and agricultural operations. His practice spans a diverse range of commercial and employment disputes, including breach of contract and fraud claims, shareholder and partnership disputes, real estate matters, and wage and hour and discrimination disputes. He handles matters through all phases of litigation, including negotiations, mediations, pleadings, discovery, motion practice, trial, and appeal. He has handled appeals in both California and federal courts and has submitted amicus curiae briefs on behalf of clients seeking to provide courts with additional perspectives on significant legal issues.

Jakarri Hamlin joined Hogan Lovells Cadwalader as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 15, 2026.

Hamlin advises financial institutions as well as asset managers across all asset classes in financings such as NAV, hybrid and subscription facilities, structured and asset-backed financings, holdco loans, mezzanine loans, margin loans, and other forms of back leverage. Hamlin also has substantial experience structuring and negotiating ISDA documentation, as well as prime brokerage, repurchase, and other trading agreements; he began his career in structured finance and derivatives before shifting into fund finance.

Viet D. Dinh joined Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as a partner in Los Angeles.

Dinh most recently served as chief legal and policy officer of Fox Corp., where he was a member of the senior leadership team and oversaw the company's legal, compliance, regulatory, government and public-affairs functions. He continued to serve as a special advisor to Fox's leadership after stepping down from his executive role. He previously served as a member of the boards of directors of News Corporation and 21st Century Fox.

Michael P. Alcan joined Sidley Austin LLP as a partner in Century City.

Alcan focuses his practice on the tax aspects of complex transactions involving investment funds and their sponsors. He regularly counsels clients on a broad range of transactional matters, including domestic and cross-border fund formations, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, continuation fund transactions, GP stakes transactions, fund financing arrangements, and sponsor-level tax planning. He also advises clients on the tax aspects of debt and equity restructurings, capital markets transactions, financial instruments, and derivatives.

Mary Wiss joined JAMS as a neutral in San Francisco. The move was Sept. 9, 2026.

During a distinguished judicial career spanning 24 years, Judge Wiss served on the San Francisco Superior Court, presiding over matters in the Complex, Civil, Criminal and Probate divisions.
Based in the San Francisco Resolution Center, Judge Wiss will serve as an arbitrator and mediator, handling business/commercial, class action, construction, employment, estate/probate/trust, insurance, personal injury and professional liability matters. Judge Wiss was the first woman assigned to the court's Complex Litigation Department and handled a broad range of high-profile disputes, including class actions, Judicial Council coordinated proceedings, employment claims, construction litigation, insurance coverage matters and probate disputes. She also served as a justice pro tempore on California's First District Court of Appeal. Prior to her appointment to the bench in 2001, she maintained a litigation practice in San Francisco, representing clients in personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, medical negligence and other civil matters.

Jonathan Westreich joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as a partner in Los Angeles.

Westreich represents companies, investment funds, and other strategic clients in complex corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, tax-free reorganizations, and restructurings with respect to domestic and cross-border tax issues. He also has significant experience with capital markets offerings, financings, and joint ventures, including real estate transactions, with a particular focus on clients in the sports, media, and entertainment industries.

Kimberly Rowe joined Akin as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 9, 2026.

Rowe advises private equity sponsors, portfolio companies and strategic clients on complex corporate transactions, including leveraged buyouts, take-private transactions, public and private M&A, carve-outs, co-investments, private investments in public equity and other strategic transactions across a broad range of industries. Most recently, Rowe served as Lead Counsel, Corporate Transactions at The Walt Disney Co., where she led complex strategic transactions and negotiated key strategic transactions with peer companies.

Matthias Kamber joined Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. as a partner in San Francisco.

Kamber's practice encompasses patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark litigation. He has tried over a dozen jury and bench trials and has litigated intellectual property matters in federal courts across the country and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. His experience spans a broad range of technologies, including internet advertising, telecommunications, smartphones and microprocessors. His experience also allows him to identify key issues early and develop targeted litigation strategies that advance his clients' broader business objectives.

Daren H. Lipinsky joined Judicate West as a neutral in Santa Ana. The move was Sept. 1, 2026.

With nearly three decades of litigation experience, Lipinsky is well-versed in employment issues, including discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and wage-and-hour matters, and business disputes, including corporate matters and breach of contract. Beyond his deep experience as a trial lawyer, he has built an independent mediation practice devoted to mediating employment and business disputes, recently founding his own firm, Lipinsky Mediation. Lipinsky has served as a settlement officer for the San Bernardino County Superior Court and the Los Angeles County Superior Court's Resolve Law LA and MVP programs. He was also a temporary judge for the Orange County Superior Court.

Brandy Worden joined Katten as a partner in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 8, 2026.

Worden has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a partner in its Intellectual Property practice. Worden advises clients on privacy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) matters, bringing extensive experience counseling global companies on complex regulatory, compliance, litigation and investigatory issues at the intersection of technology, data and innovation.

Bruce Steinert joined Akerman LLP as a partner in Los Angeles.

Steinert's practice spans acquisition facilities, refinancing facilities, recapitalizations, distressed and workout facilities, bond issuances, and second-lien and junior debt financings, both domestic and multijurisdictional. His experience reaches across a wide array of sectors, including software, IT, business services, health care, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and pharmaceuticals, and he has represented leading sponsors in financings supporting dozens of platform and add-on acquisitions.

Valerie Salkin joined ADR Services, Inc. as a neutral in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 15, 2026.

Judge Salkin brings more than three decades of legal experience, including 16 years on the Los Angeles County Superior Court and more than 100 jury trials as a prosecutor. During her judicial tenure, she spent approximately nine years presiding over civil matters, handling a wide range of business, employment, personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer, and other complex civil disputes. She also conducted more than 150 Mandatory Settlement Conferences and managed one of the court's busiest civil calendars. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Salkin served as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, where she tried more than 100 cases to jury verdict as lead counsel.

As a mediator, Judge Salkin draws on her extensive trial and judicial experience to help parties evaluate risk, identify practical solutions, and work toward resolution.

Judge Salkin is available through ADR Services, Inc. for mediations and other private dispute resolution assignments.

Ruth Kwan joined ADR Services, Inc. as a neutral in Los Angeles. The move was Sept. 10, 2026.

Judge Kwan served on the Los Angeles Superior Court for nearly three decades, including most recently at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Throughout her judicial career, she presided over a broad range of complex civil matters, including business and commercial disputes, real estate and construction litigation, insurance bad faith, catastrophic personal injury, employment class actions, PAGA, FEHA, wage-and-hour claims, products liability, and wrongful death cases. She also served as Assistant Supervising Judge of the Civil Division.

Widely respected for her intellect, fairness, and exceptional work ethic, Judge Kwan has extensive experience helping parties resolve disputes. Her practical understanding of litigation risk, trial dynamics, and judicial decision-making enables her to assist parties in evaluating cases realistically and achieving meaningful resolutions.

Judge Kwan's distinguished career has been recognized by numerous legal organizations, including the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, ABOTA, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Korean Community Lawyers Association.

Jonathan Stott joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as a partner in San Francisco. The move was Aug. 31, 2026.

Stott represents private equity sponsors, alternative asset managers and operating companies in complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, carve-out transactions, growth and structured equity investments, joint ventures and other transformative capital events. His experience extends across a wide range of industry sectors, including aerospace, building products, consumer brands and products, financial services, food products, healthcare, industrial, manufacturing, software and technology.

Stott previously was managing partner of Weil's San Francisco office and led its West Coast Private Equity practice.

Michael Hanna joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as a partner in San Francisco.

Hanna advises private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a wide variety of corporate transactions, including leveraged acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, joint ventures, rescue equity financing, incentive equity arrangements, corporate governance and other corporate matters.

Amber L. Schubert joined Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz as a partner in San Francisco.

Schubert's cases sit at the intersection of law, technology, and corporate accountability. She brings command of the issues that often determine whether complex privacy cases succeed, including technical discovery, standing, rapidly evolving privacy statutes, multistate claims, class wide damages, and remedies that both compensate consumers and meaningfully change the practices that put their information at risk.

Sonum Dixit joined Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz as an associate in San Francisco.

Dixit is an associate attorney in Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz's San Francisco office, where she works within the firm's Data Breach & Privacy Subdivision as part of AWKO's consumer class action practice. Before joining AWKO, Sonum was a litigation associate, where she co-managed her previous firm's portfolio of data privacy cases, and worked on shareholder derivative matters arising from corporate data security failures.

Alexandra Marsh joined Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz as an associate in San Francisco.

Marsh served as a Victims' Rights Staff Attorney at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic in San Francisco, where she represented survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and gender-based violence in criminal proceedings and worked closely with the San Francisco Police Department, District Attorney's Office, and Sheriff's Department to support clients through every stage of the process.

Zachary S. Finley joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as a partner in Palo Alto.

Finley is a trusted adviser to public and private companies, financial institutions and private capital funds on a broad range of debt financing matters, including investment-grade and non-investment-grade credit facilities, private credit transactions, asset-based loans, bespoke capital structures, debt restructurings and workouts.