Fenwick & West has strengthened its corporate practice with the addition of former O'Melveny & Myers partner Einat Meisel and Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth partner Joshua Geffon in Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, respectively.

Meisel joined Fenwick's Mountain View office, while Geffon became a member of the firm's recently launched Santa Monica office.

"It's a very unified firm in the sense that it has this mission and always has had a strategic focus on tech and life science, which is particularly appealing to me given my background and my practice, and my experience with Israeli technology companies," Meisel said.

At O'Melveny & Myers, where she practiced for three years, Meisel served as the head of the firm's Israel practice. Before moving to Silicon Valley, she spent 15 years in Tel Aviv at Israeli law firm GKH Law Offices. She also served as a member of that firm's executive committee and head of its cross-border practice.

"Tech just continues to be pervasive and continues to grow," Meisel added. "And Fenwick has just been particularly adept and strategic and being able to be at the forefront of that."

Geffon worked at Stradling Yocca for most of his legal career. He briefly stepped away from private practice from 2014 to 2016, when he was assistant general counsel for Zenith Insurance Co.

Echoing Meisel, Geffon said: "The demand for emerging technology and life sciences lawyers will continue to grow in Southern California." He added, "Growing the entire ecosystem in the greater LA region is something that Fenwick prioritized" and that aligned with his practice.

Geffon is the third partner Fenwick has added to its Santa Monica office since it opened in early 2019. With the addition of Geffon, intellectual property partner Andrew Klungness and corporate partner Sarah Chambless, the Silicon Valley firm now has six partners in Santa Monica. All together, it has more than 20 professionals in the office.

In a statement, Fenwick corporate practice chairman Alan Smith said growing the Santa Monica office and building on the firm's strong presence in the greater Los Angeles startup and venture capital ecosystem "are strategic priorities" for the firm.

"Demand for our services from emerging technology and life sciences companies continues to grow," Smith said in a statement. "Josh is a successful startup lawyer who will strengthen our startup practice in Santa Monica and integrate well with our overall corporate practice."

Back home in Silicon Valley, Fenwick has about a total of 160 attorneys. Firmwide it has more than 300 lawyers.

In a statement commenting on Meisel's departure, an O'Melveny representative said, "We wish Einat well."

With respect to the firm's Israel practice, the representative added, "Our firmwide Corporate Co-Chair, Warren Lazarow, Silicon Valley partner Paul Sieben and New York partner David Schultz are the O'Melveny partners who always have maintained, and will continue to maintain, our close relationships with our Israeli clients."

Stradling Yocca did not reply to a request for comment on Geffon's departure.

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