Kristina A Hoban was promoted to partner of Kelly, Trotter & Franzen in Long Beach.

Hoban has distinguished herself as defense counsel in medical malpractice and elder abuse. With more than 13 years of experience, she has represented various individuals, including physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers, as well as medical groups and hospitals in Southern California.

Sergio Broholm was promoted to partner of Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco.

Broholm is a member of the firm's Corporate Group, representing founders, startups, executives, investors and publicly traded companies in mergers and acquisitions, emerging company representation, and general contractual and transactional matters. He also regularly advises blockchain and cryptocurrency clients on a range of transactional matters and outside general counsel work. Broholm maintains an active pro bono practice, spearheading a pro bono program at the firm to help formerly incarcerated individuals clean their conviction records.

Melissa Hung was promoted to partner of Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco.

Hung advises families and individuals by developing and implementing estate planning strategies to transfer assets in a thoughtful and tax-efficient manner. She also advises fiduciaries regarding trust and estate administrations. Her experience includes customizing revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, and other vehicles to promote her clients’ goals. Hung is the membership chair and board director of the San Francisco Estate Planning Council.

Suzy Orza was promoted to partner of Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco.

Orza handles a wide range of business litigation in state and federal courts and in private arbitration, including breach of contract claims, partnership disputes, trade secret misappropriation claims and unfair competition claims. She has represented departments of the State of California, large public and private companies, small businesses, and individuals.

Joe Soliman was promoted to partner of Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco.

Soliman has substantial experience in the structuring, negotiation, and documentation of a broad range of real estate and finance transactions. He represents real estate clients in real estate transactions, including purchases, sales and financings of commercial properties including multifamily projects, large office buildings, large-scale residential development projects and commercial properties nationwide.

Bijal V. Vakil joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as partner in Palo Alto.

Vakil represents publicly traded and venture-backed companies and has extensive experience in high-stakes intellectual property and technology litigation. He is an invaluable partner to major Silicon Valley and international technology companies and relentlessly works to protect intellectual property and foster success for those at the forefront of technological innovation.

Benjamin G. Kassis joined Frost LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Kassis, a business litigator with a decade-plus career representing clients in entertainment, media, sports, entrepreneurship, and real estate, increases the firm's existing practice strengths on behalf of corporate, individual, and high-profile clients across media, entertainment, sports, and music. Kassis will continue to counsel high-profile clients such as filmmakers, professional athletes, musicians, producers, media distributors, marketing leaders, content creators, and media executives. He will also contribute to Frost LLP's growing appellate practice. 

Jody L. Bryson was promoted to partner of Perkins Coie LLP in Palo Alto.

Bryson guides clients through even the most complex personal and family circumstances to craft a unique strategy to accomplish their goals. Her estate planning practice includes the creation of revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, advance health care directives, as well as, associated documents to assist with entity formation, wealth transfer and asset protection. Her elevation to the partnership is effective Jan. 1.

Colin M. Fowler was promoted to partner of Perkins Coie LLP in Palo Alto.

Fowler focuses on thoroughly understanding clients' technology in order to offer strategic patent advice to meet business goals. He advises his clients, including financial services companies, manufacturers, and innovative technology companies, on matters concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), bioinformatics tools, cybersecurity, blockchain and cryptography, cloud computing, virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed realities (MR), video games, transistors, and nanoscale devices. His elevation to the partnership is effective Jan. 1.

Michelle W. Edwards was promoted to partner of Perkins Coie LLP in San Francisco.

Edwards represents companies throughout their life cycle, from formation through financings, growth through business combinations, and exit transactions. She also has broad experience counseling publicly listed companies on securities law, corporate governance, and compliance matters. Her elevation to the partnership is effective Jan. 1.

John Pavolotsky was promoted to partner of Stoel Rives LLP in San Francisco.

Pavolotsky's practice focuses on advising clients regarding privacy and data security matters and on structuring and negotiating complex technology transactions, including inbound and outbound hardware and software licensing and strategic collaboration and development agreements. His elevation to the partnership is effective Jan. 1.

Lilly B. McKenna was promoted to partner of Stoel Rives LLP in San Francisco.

McKenna leverages her deep experience in state energy policy and regulation to guide clients through complex power procurement, rate, distributed resource, and electric transportation matters. She helps clients comply with and advocates for improvements to state energy policies. She regularly appears before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). She has appeared pro hac vice to advocate for clients in beneficial electrification cases in several other jurisdictions nationwide. Her elevation to the partnership is effective Jan. 1.

Lauren E Holappa joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as an associate in San Francisco.

Holappa is an associate practicing out of the San Francisco office counseling clients in a variety of matters in all forms of civil litigation with a focus on insurance defense.

Kai'Ree Kauneeisha Howard joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as an associate in San Francisco.

Howard is an associate practicing in the firm's San Francisco office counseling clients in a variety of matters relating to professional liability, employment, real estate, trust & estates, and all forms of civil litigation.

Matt Drenan joined Quarles & Brady LLP as partner in San Diego.

Drenan advises local, national and international clients on a wide range of labor, employment, transportation, logistics and commercial litigation matters, including single plaintiff, complex, class and representative action defense in both state and federal court. He is deeply experienced handling wage and hour compliance, class actions, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) litigation, single-plaintiff wage and hour disputes, and matters related to pay equity, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation, religious exemption, executive compensation, federal and state leave law, and more.

Charles Whitman joined Quarles & Brady LLP as partner in San Diego.

Whitman advises business owners, employers and individuals on an array of workplace issues, business disputes, and government investigations and prosecutions. He handles all aspects of state and federal employment litigation, including wage and hour class and representative actions, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) litigation, and single plaintiff wage and hour disputes. Additionally, Whitman guides clients on federal and state discrimination, hostile work environment, bullying, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and retaliation cases.

Krisha Yadav-Ranjan joined Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney P.C. as associate in Sacramento.

Yadav-Ranjan is an associate attorney practicing out of the firm's Sacramento office. She represents clients on a variety of issues including intellectual property, products liability, and environmental litigation. Yadav-Ranjan is also a registered patent attorney.

Kevin D. Lally joined Buchalter as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Lally brings nearly three decades of experience as a former federal prosecutor and a white collar litigator who is renowned for successfully resolving large scale federal criminal investigations, complex civil matters, and novel regulatory issues. His diverse practice focuses on federal investigations, white-collar defense, complex civil litigation, and regulatory enforcement. He has represented plaintiffs, defendants, and corporations in a wide array of matters, including RICO, money laundering, AML compliance, insider trading, the False Claims Act, health care, bank and wire fraud, and cross-border regulatory compliance and criminal enforcement. He also has conducted large-scale internal investigations, addressing allegations of financial misconduct and regulatory violations across various industries.

Alexis Loeb joined Farella Braun + Martel LLP as partner in San Francisco.

With more than 15 years of litigation and prosecution experience, Loeb joins the firm after serving in the DOJ's Criminal and Antitrust Divisions in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco and in the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Northern District of California and in the District of Columbia, where she worked on some of the DOJ's most high-profile matters at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels. In 2023, Loeb became a deputy chief of the Capitol Siege Section, overseeing January 6th-related investigations and prosecutions. Earlier in her DOJ career, she convicted numerous members of a Northern California bid-rigging scheme following three jury trials, argued multiple appeals before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and launched the DOJ's investigation into the misappropriation of 1MDB, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, among other antitrust, fraud, international money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters.

Sarah B Levett was promoted to attorney of Cole Huber LLP in Roseville.

Levett has passed the California state Bar and was sworn into office on November, 15. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was a law clerk at Cole Huber and an extern for an original founding partner of the firm, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis M. Cota of the Eastern District of California.

Richard N. Lozano joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP as an associate in San Diego.

Lozano gained valuable experience representing shareholders harmed by corporate malfeasance through shareholder derivative litigation and securities fraud class actions. Lozano also previously worked as a law clerk in the business litigation practice group for a nationwide litigation firm.

John Kulback joined Loeb & Loeb LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Kulback is an industry-leading dealmaker and trusted advisor who focuses on providing legal, business and strategic counsel to feature film financiers, television and documentary production companies and digital content creators. Additionally, he represents venture capital-backed media technology companies as they scale from early stage into complex and high-stakes corporate and commercial partnerships.

Tuan-Anh Vu joined Cole Huber LLP as partner in Ontario.

Vu previously served as deputy city attorney for Victorville, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City, and was deputy general counsel for other public agencies. His experience includes a broad array of municipal legal matters including public contracts, the Public Records Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, code enforcement, and health and safety receiverships.

Judge Morrison C. England joined Judicate West as neutral in Sacramento.

England has more than 40 years of combined legal experience, including nearly 30 years of serving California from the bench. He was appointed to the district court in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush following six years with the Sacramento County Superior Court, and he served as chief judge of the Eastern District of California from 2012-2016. He has presided over many matters including dependency and delinquency, criminal and civil.

Laila Paszti joined Polsinelli LLP as shareholder in San Francisco.

Paszti's practice focuses on technology and related aspects of mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, licensing and other commercial transactions. Drawing from her combined background as a software engineer and attorney, she helps clients manage risk and safeguard their commercial interests. She has acted on both sides of multinational mergers and acquisitions, patent purchases and sales and licensing and IP transactions, including in regulated industries such as health care and finance. Paszti also counsels clients on multijurisdictional privacy regimes, cybersecurity and big data platform diligence.

David G. Kim was promoted to partner of Friedland Cianfrani LLP in Irvine.

Kim was elevated to partner. He has extensive experience in all aspects of IP litigation, having handled cases involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, molecular diagnostics, nucleic acid sequencers, solar cells, and antennas, as well as matters relating to less complex mechanical devices.  Kim has represented clients before federal courts, the International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Raymond O. Aghaian joined BakerHostetler as partner in Los Angeles.

Aghaian regularly litigates complex privacy and cybersecurity matters, including defending class actions relating to geolocation data, collection and use of consumer data through Meta Pixel technology, the California Wiretap Act, California's trap and trace laws, the Children's Internet Protection Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He has litigated matters connected to hacking schemes, data breach incidents and the use of consumer data. Clients also rely on him for advice on cyberattack and data breach response, future incident prevention, and compliance with cybersecurity regulations.

Ankush R. Israni joined Greenberg Traurig, LLP as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Israni focuses on commercial real estate and finance transactions. He represents clients in multimillion-dollar matters across the United States, including financing, joint ventures, acquisitions, dispositions, development, and leasing of commercial real estate.

John P. Cleary joined Greenberg Traurig, LLP as shareholder in San Diego.

Cleary represents public and private clients in a variety of corporate and securities matters. He focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities transactions, franchise formation and compliance, and general corporate matters. John also works with private equity and investment firms on structure, formation, SEC compliance, and transactions.

Jose Sanchez joined Foley & Lardner LLP as partner in Los Angeles.

Sanchez has defended U.S. and international accounting firms, audit professionals, public companies, investment firms, and other regulated entities in enforcement and regulatory investigations before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Department of Justice, state boards of accountancy, and other U.S. and foreign regulators. He has successfully defended securities fraud class actions, shareholder derivative suits, and professional malpractice claims and led independent investigations and anticorruption risk assessments across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe.

Dalton Sprinkle joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Sprinkle has extensive experience representing companies and investors in a wide range of transactions, including M&A, venture capital financings, public and private securities offerings, licensing, joint ventures and restructurings.

Josh Armstrong joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as shareholder in Los Angeles.

Armstrong brings more than two decades of experience building, leading and advising multidisciplinary groups responsible for the execution of critical strategic initiatives for high-growth companies through mergers and acquisitions, capital transactions and strategic partnerships.

Tracy Roman joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as counsel in Los Angeles.

Roman advises clients on intellectual property and technology issues, particularly in transactional deals. For more than 25 years, Roman has advised clients on a range of issues, including copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, privacy and licensing.

Ashley Stander joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as an associate in Los Angeles.

Stander's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, general corporate representation and venture capital financing. She works with clients in the technology, software, e-commerce, consumer products and financial services industries.

Andrew C. Whitman joined Kibler Fowler & Cave LLP as senior associate in Los Angeles.

Whitman has represented clients in high-stakes matters across state and federal courts, offering a customized, business-first approach to litigation. His experience spans various industries, including real estate, finance, entertainment, cannabis, and local government law matters. His previous experience includes time at DLA Piper and Allen Matkins, where he handled multi-million-dollar disputes, fraud investigations, and regulatory challenges.

Dominique Shelton Leipzig joined Global Data Innovation in Beverly Hills.

Shelton Leipzig, a leading AI and data governance authority, launched Global Data Innovation, an advisory practice focused on helping organizations excel in their data management strategies. Leipzig will advise CEOs, board members, and business leaders on implementing superior data governance practices. The launch of Global Data Innovation comes as organizations increasingly seek expert guidance on technology governance. Shelton Leipzig's new firm will provide strategic consulting to companies of all sizes working to strengthen their data management frameworks.