Hogan Lovells added Josh Scala to its San Francisco office. Scala will serve as a corporate partner in the firm's U.S. real estate investment trust tax practice. He focuses his practice on the ownership, development and disposition of commercial real estate and related federal income tax issues. Previously, Scala was principal at Ernst & Young, which he joined after working as a transactional tax attorney at Arnold & Porter.

CaseyGerry associate Srinivas Hanumadass was elected to the board of directors of Consumer Attorneys of California, a professional organization of attorneys that represents consumers in personal injury, products liability cases and other causes. Hanumadass is based in CaseyGerry's San Diego office and litigates personal injury matters.

Alessandra Murata, a former partner with Goodwin Procter, joined Cooley's Palo Alto office as partner. Murata counsels organizations and management, usually within within the technology, life sciences, private equity and REIT sectors, in transformative corporate events.

Executive compensation lawyer Jennifer Kirk returned to Baker McKenzie after eight years at Google parent company Alphabet Inc. She joins the firm, where she worked between 2001 and 2011, as a partner in the employment and compensation group. Kirk focuses her practice on tax and regulatory issues related to the implementation and maintenance of global share plans and other incentive compensation arrangements and is based out of the firm's San Francisco office.

Justin Yi, an attorney with a focus on private equity, has left Los Angeles boutique Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern to join Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as a partner in Santa Monica. He joins the firm's mergers and acquisitions and private equity group, where he will handle complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, reorganizations, recapitalizations and minority investments.

Also in Santa Monica, Fenwick & West brought on Andrew Klungness, who was a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and leader of the firm's commercial practice prior to the move. Klungness handles matters related to intellectual property and technology transactions.

Former Plante Lebovic lawyer Nicole Bartz Metral joined Blank Rome as an associate in Los Angeles. She will be part of the firm's litigation group, where she will concentrate on complex litigation matters involving general liability, breach of contract, class actions, fraud, negligence and business torts.