DLA Piper's California Expansion Has Not Slowed Down
DLA Piper recently added three partners in San Francisco from Goodwin Procter, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
November 22, 2019 at 10:23 AM
4 minute read
DLA Piper has forged ahead on its hiring spree in California, bringing on three partners in San Francisco in recent weeks.
The three additions are John Maselli, a former Amazon.com in-house lawyer who came to the firm from Goodwin Procter, Michael Sitzman, a longtime patent litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Soumitra "Sam" Deka, a former intellectual property counsel at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
All three lawyers joined as partners and said they were attracted to DLA Piper's international platform.
"Many of my clients are already working with DLA, [which] has been involved in my deals and not necessarily the lead M&A capacity, or the lead M&A counsel as it involved in certain aspects of the representation," Maselli said. "I know my clients were very impressed with the DLA platform."
Maselli was most recently counsel in Goodwin's private equity business unit, where he worked for the past 4½ years. He focuses on advising private equity and venture capital clients on domestic and cross-border M&A deals.
While at Goodwin, he represented clients such as Sunstone Partners, Zendesk and Goldman Sachs on a number of acquisitions, according to his former firm.
Sitzman, who is now a partner in DLA Piper's San Francisco office, will also chair the firm's life sciences patent litigation practice.
"The real motivation and the real opportunity here is the is the life science opportunity," Sitzman said. "My focus and background are all in biopharma patent litigation. I've been doing that for a long time. DLA has been really committed, and is really committed to building a life science practice."
Also joining that practice is Deka, who focuses his practice on patent litigation with an emphasis on technology and life science industries
The work he and Sitzman do "seems like it fits with the firm's growth plan," Deka added. "So I think it's exciting to build that critical mass."
Sitzman was at Gibson Dunn for over two decades before moving to DLA Piper. During those years, he represented Allergan, Alza, Depomed, Genentech, Gilead, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Medicis, Merck Serono, Novo Nordisk and Ultragenyx, according to his firm bio.
"I can tell you that all of my clients are very excited about the opportunities and all very positive about the new the new opportunities and new prospects," Sitzman said. "DLA has got such a global footprint. … It's really amazing to be able to offer the clients so much coverage in terms of [their] needs, whether it be cross-border or cross-discipline."
Goodwin, Gibson Dunn and Arnold Porter could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement commenting on three partners' arrival. Stephen Cowan, managing partner of DLA Piper's San Francisco office, said the firm is always looking for opportunities to add "high-caliber people" to the team.
"We're doing innovative and collaborative work in San Francisco and Northern California as a whole and John, Mike and Sam's backgrounds and capabilities are a strong extension to our existing team," Cowan said.
DLA Piper said it now has about 99 lawyers and staff based in its San Francisco office, including 29 partners, 22 associates and 11 other lawyers. Throughout California, it has a total of 159 partners.
"We aim to become the leading global law firm, especially in critical sectors like technology and life sciences, and making sure we have a phenomenal team in place is key to that endeavor," Cowan continued. "Northern California is an important part of the firm's strategy and, as we grow, we're focused on adding top talent to enhance the quality work and forward-thinking know-how our clients have come to expect."
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Cowan's title, and the number of lawyers in the San Francisco office.
|Read More
DLA Piper Takes Leading Cyber Lawyer From Morrison & Foerster in San Diego
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllContract Software Unicorn Ironclad Hires Former Pinterest Lawyer as GC
2 minute readSouthern California Law Firms Boast Industry-Leading Revenue, Demand Through Q3
Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250