A little more than a month after opening its second office in California, Barnes & Thornburg has recruited three restructuring lawyers from Cooley in San Diego.

The hires come a few weeks after Barnes & Thornburg nabbed former Cooley partner Troy Zander to set up shop in the city. Zander, now partner-in-charge of the Indianapolis-based Am Law 100 firm's San Diego office, will reunite with former Cooley colleagues Ali Mojdehi, Janet Gertz and Allison Rego. Mojdehi and Gertz join Cooley as partners, while Rego comes aboard as an associate. Gertz was previously an associate at Cooley.

Mojdehi, who joined Cooley in 2012 after Baker McKenzie closed its San Diego office, will work out of Barnes & Thornburg's offices in the city and Los Angeles along with Gertz and Rego. Mojdehi attributed Zander's recent move as enticing him to join the firm.

“[He] piqued our interest, because we have a tremendous amount of respect for Troy,” said Mojdehi about Zander, who cited client conflicts as contributing to his decision to join Barnes & Thornburg last month, a move that came only a year after he joined Cooley from DLA Piper.

Mojdehi spent more than 20 years at Baker McKenzie, where he served as managing partner of the global legal giant's San Diego office and as chair of its North American bankruptcy practice.

“We found Barnes & Thornburg to be a remarkable firm in terms of its talent base, collaborative philosophy and commitment to our practice area of restructuring,” Mojdehi said. “It is a firm that is focused on achieving superlative results for clients, recognizing that benefits to the firm follow—a different way of saying 'clients first.'”

Gertz, who also joined Cooley in 2012 after Baker McKenzie left San Diego, agreed with Mojdehi's assessment of her new firm.

“I find that [Barnes & Thornburg] has a lot of energy,” Gertz said. “I am looking forward to being at the beginning of, and part of the growth and success of, the San Diego office.”

At Cooley, Gertz and Rego worked closely with Mojdehi on a number of matters, including the pro bono representation of Iranian American judge A. Ashley Tabaddor in her successful challenge of a U.S. Department of Justice order that she recuse herself from cases involving Iranian nationals. (Tabaddor's settlement with the Justice Department netted $192,400 in attorney fees for Cooley.)

Barnes & Thornburg's San Diego office now has three partners in Gertz, Mojdehi and Zander, while the firm's Los Angeles office has roughly 50 lawyers, 31 of them partners. The Los Angeles base, which opened in 2011, recently added Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart labor and employment partners Dawn Collins and Tae Kim.

In a statement, Zander said he was excited to be reunited with his former Cooley brethren, all three of whom will be part of Barnes & Thornburg's finance, insolvency and restructuring department.

“I know firsthand the caliber of this group,” Zander said. “The addition of Ali, Janet and Allison aligns seamlessly with our continued efforts to strengthen our financial restructuring, litigation and corporate focus. Their experience across key industries, such as high-tech, energy, real estate and manufacturing, will play an integral role serving clients here in Southern California and nationally.”

Barnes & Thornburg, which saw gross revenue, partner profits and revenue per lawyer all rise in 2017, has been busy expanding elsewhere so far this year.

In January, the 529-lawyer firm brought on a four-lawyer family law team in Minneapolis from Lindquist & Vennum as the latter merged with Ballard Spahr. A month later, Barnes & Thornburg's Chicago office added Perkins Coie corporate partners Bruce Zivian and Dennis Peterson, as well as McDermott Will & Emery intellectual property litigation partner Joseph Paquin Jr. Mark Nelson, a former IP litigation partner at Dentons, joined Barnes & Thornburg's Dallas office earlier this month.