Alston & Bird, which opened its San Francisco office two years ago, continues to expand in the Golden State, most recently adding an environmental partner from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Greg Christianson joined Alston & Bird's environment, land use and natural resources group June 3 as a partner.

“The San Francisco office of Alston is only two years old. It's new, it's dynamic, it's growing,” Christianson said. “And I felt it would be a good challenge for me to help come in and help grow the practice here in Northern California and nationwide.”

He added that he is excited to join Douglas Arnold and Nicki Carlsen, co-chairs of Alston & Bird's environment group, in their efforts to expand the practice.

“Doug and Nicki and the firm have really focused on bringing in and developing the best associates focused exclusively on environmental work,” Christianson said. “We have great environmental associates at every level from junior to senior, and that makes my job as a partner much easier.”

Christianson focuses his practice on Superfund cost recovery and allocation matters, natural resource damage actions, federal and state citizen suits, multiparty toxic tort actions and other complex environmental litigation.

He started out his legal career in Los Angeles as an associate at San Francisco-based McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, which merged with Bingham Dana in 2002 to form Bingham McCutchen. In 2012, Christianson moved his practice to the Bay Area, and shortly after that, Bingham McCutchen was absorbed by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in 2014.

“With California as a hub for environmental litigation and a bellwether for other states, Greg has a deep understanding of the nuances of complex environmental matters and associated litigation that clients respect and admire,” Carlsen said in a statement. “He is keenly attuned to the litigation challenges facing clients and understanding what is most important to them and how to achieve their goals in a wide range of business and legal contexts.”

With Christianson's addition, Alston & Bird now has about 15 attorneys in its San Francisco office. Since the office was founded in 2017, Alston & Bird has added 10 practice areas in California, including environmental, construction and government contracts, class actions, corporate and intellectual property litigation, the firm said.

Reached for comment Monday, a spokeswoman for Morgan Lewis said the firm wishes Christianson well.

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