Polsinelli has added bankruptcy law practitioner G. Wendy Godfrey as a shareholder from Morris Manning & Martin as part of a push to deepen its financial services and creditors' rights litigation practice.

Wendy Godfrey of Polsinelli. (Courtesy photo)

Godfrey handles all aspects of distressed business matters, including creditors' rights litigation and workouts. She also assists lenders with loan restructurings and other matters. She is on the advisory board for the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal, the only student-run bankruptcy journal in the nation.

Godfrey is the first shareholder resident in Polsinelli's 30-lawyer Atlanta office with a financial services litigation practice. The Am Law 100 firm, which has about 900 lawyers in 21 U.S. locations, also recently added shareholders in Miami, Seattle and Dallas, representing banks and other lenders. (Aaron Wagner, the new shareholder in Seattle, was in Locke Lord's Atlanta office before joining Polsinelli in January.)

With the additions, Polsinelli's practice has 40 financial services litigators nationally.

The new shareholders add consumer finance litigation capabilities to the practice, which has historically focused on the commercial finance industry, according to Brett Anders, who heads Polsinelli's financial services litigation practice.

"As our client base continues to expand," Anders said in a statement, "these new attorneys bring the experience and capabilities, and a commitment to outstanding client service, to serve our growing demand."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Georgia chapter has named Murtaza Khwaja as its legal and policy director to pursue legal and grassroots advocacy that combats anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry in Georgia.

Khwaja joined CAIR Georgia in 2017 as a staff attorney and lobbyist. Since then he's represented numerous victims of anti-Muslim discrimination, helped defeat anti-immigrant bills at the state Legislature and led efforts to organize the first-ever Muslim Advocacy Day at the Georgia State Capitol, according to an announcement from CAIR.

He is a 2016 graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, where he co-founded the Glitter of Hope Legal Clinic to aid the refugee community in Clarkston with Know Your Rights workshops and legal assistance.

Barnes & Thornburg has added business litigator Eric Fisher as a partner from Taylor English Duma. Fisher handles disputes over contracts, business partnerships, insurance and employment matters in Georgia and California for clients in industries including financial services, transportation, medical and entertainment.

Fisher, whom the Daily Report named On the Rise in 2017, is the treasurer for the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which gave him its Good Apple award for his pro bono work training lawyers to represent foster children who'd been suspended for longer than 10 days. He's also a Southeastern board member of the Anti-Defamation League, which gave him its Daniel R. Ginsberg Leadership Award.

With Fisher, Barnes & Thornburg has 31 lawyers and three lobbyists locally. His addition follows Barnes & Thornburg's hires earlier this year in Atlanta of entertainment and health care lobbyist Misty Holcomb as a director of state government affairs and a four-lawyer tax team led by partner Sean Honeywill from a local tax boutique.

Taylor English Duma has added political lawyer Loree Anne Paradise and corporate partner R. Scott Tobin. Paradise, who joined Taylor English and its lobbying arm, Taylor English Decisions, was the communications director for Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan after serving as chief of staff for former Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is now a U.S. senator. She also was communications director for Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia. Paradise has worked on several political campaigns, including those of Duncan, Hawley and Collins, after earning a J.D. from the University of Kansas in 2016.

Tobin, formerly a partner at Fox Rothschild, handles all aspects of business law, including finance, M&A, strategic partnerships and licensing. He advises high-growth businesses, including many privately held tech companies, on business and legal strategy. Tobin, who works from both Atlanta and North Carolina, is board chair of the National Association of Corporate Directors' Research Triangle Chapter and a member of the board of the Association for Corporate Growth

Litigator Sharon Horne has joined Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker as counsel from Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins. Horne defends companies, insurers and their insureds in personal injury, premises liability and other civil litigation. She is a former assistant district attorney for DeKalb County and an assistant attorney general for the state of Georgia.

Seyfarth Shaw has promoted six Atlanta lawyers to partner, out of 25 firmwide, effective Jan. 1.

They include three real estate partners, R. Terry Carroll II, Kathryn Hackney Smith and Lori Whitfield, plus corporate practitioner Michelle Barnett, labor and employment practitioner Christina Forte Meddin and litigator Alexander Bartko.

Dentons has promoted four lawyers in Atlanta to partner out of 42 partner promotions in North America.

Rebecca Merrill has a health care practice, advising clients on transactions, fraud and abuse protection, regulatory compliance, privacy and security, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and government investigations. Kellee Padgett has a commercial real estate practice, representing home and apartment builders, shopping center developers and owners and borrowers and lenders. Suneet Sidhu is a real estate finance lawyer representing financial institutions, investors and developers. He also represents clients on commercial real estate projects. Business litigator Jeff Zachman focuses on consumer and statutory class actions, defending fin-tech companies, banks and insurers.

Business law boutique MendenFreiman has promoted Jeff Meek to partner and added an associate, Kristen Nugent, to its corporate practice from AT&T, where she was lead benefits consultant for retirement plans. Meek handles business, tax and estate planning for high-net-worth individuals, families and closely-held companies.

Berman Fink Van Horn has promoted business litigator Daniel Park to principal. Park handles business and real estate disputes, as well as noncompete, trade secrets and labor and employment matters.

Matthew Wilson has been named one of the nation's Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association. Wilson has his own personal injury firm, Wilson Law FIrm, and is serving his second year as a Democratic state representative for Brookhaven. Wilson, the second openly gay man to be elected to the Georgia Legislature, told the Daily Report in 2017 that the legislature's repeated attempts to pass anti-gay "religious freedom" legislation motivated him to run for office.

Joanna Jang of Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers has been named to the boards of the Korean American Association of Greater Atlanta and the Korean-American Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta. Jang frequently makes Korean-language presentations on workers' compensation law to Korean business owners.