(Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM)

Perkins Coie has added emerging companies and venture capital partner Matthew Oshinsky and corporate finance partner R. Bruce Steinert Jr. to its Palo Alto and San Francisco offices, respectively.

Oshinsky, who was most recently a partner in DLA Piper's office in East Palo Alto, California, has joined the firm's emerging companies and venture capital (ECVC) practice. Steinert has joined Perkins Coie's San Francisco office as a partner in its M&A and private equity practice. Previously, Steinert was a partner at Greenberg Traurig.

Oshinsky's addition is the latest in a string of hires by Perkins Coie for its ECVC practice this year, the firm said in a Wednesday announcement. Other recent recruits include Dorsey & Whitney's Adrian Rich, DLA Piper's Geoffrey Ossias and Lowenstein Sandler's Matthew Kirmayer.

“Adding to the firm's corps of talented ECVC attorneys has been and remains a central tenet to our group's mission of representing sophisticated technology companies,” said a statement from Ralph “Buddy” Arnheim, co-chair of Perkins Coie's ECVC practice. “The Bay Area is a priority market for the firm, and bringing in rainmakers like Matt, who have the experience and capabilities to execute at the highest levels, is critical to our ability to serve as trusted advisors to our clients.”

Seattle-based Perkins Coie opened its San Francisco and Palo Alto offices in 1998. According to the 944-lawyer firm, it currently has 78 lawyers in San Francisco and 79 in Palo Alto. The firm's ECVC lawyers, located in 11 offices, handle hundreds of venture capital deals representing emerging growth companies and investors each year.

Perkins Coie saw gross revenue remain mostly flat last year, at nearly $786 million.

Some of Oshinsky's clients include venture capital and private equity investors, publicly traded and privately held companies and emerging companies. Before joining DLA Piper in 2012, where he would go on to advise Larry Ellison on his acquisition of a Hawaiian island, Oshinsky worked briefly at Reed Smith and for about seven years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Steinert represents private equity sponsor clients on leveraged buyout debt financings and related matters. As a specialist in private equity finance, Steinert said he has been looking for a firm, such as Perkins Coie, that has a strong mid-market practice.

R. Bruce Steinert Jr.

“Not only is this firm active in the mid-market private equity [space] and looking to really grow in that, but [the firm] was looking to grow specifically in California,” he said. “So having a lot of contacts in California, knowing a lot of lawyers in California and knowing a lot of clients in California is going to be a great thing in the upcoming years.”

Steinert, whose move to Perkins Coie was brokered by legal recruiter Larry Watanabe, said private equity activity has picked up in California since he was recruited to work as an associate in Kirkland & Ellis' San Francisco office in 2004.

“There has been a lot of growth in San Francisco and Los Angeles in terms of just the number of private equity shops that have opened since 2004, but I also think it is kind of evidence in a way that Kirkland has grown, and some of the clients I have seen, they have also started to open in other cities [like] Denver, Portland, Seattle and Austin,” Steiner said.

Steinert was elevated from associate to partner at Kirkland in 2008 during his nearly decadelong stint in the firm's San Francisco office. Prior to that, he spent about three years as an associate in Proskauer Rose's New York headquarters, where he once motorcycled for charity. He joined Greenberg Traurig in August 2013.

“Bruce's entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to roll up his sleeves and dig deep into client challenges make him a fantastic fit for our team,” said a statement from Barbara Schussman, Perkins Coie's San Francisco office managing partner. “His strong Bay Area roots will bolster our private equity and debt finance footprint in the market and provide a strong building block for the office in the foreseeable future.”

On the side, Steinert has formed bands and participated in the “Battle of the Bands” with his former colleagues at Greenberg Traurig and Kirkland. He said he is looking forward to doing the same at Perkins Coie.