Michael Ward, the former chief risk and compliance officer, vice president and deputy general counsel at Juniper Networks, joined Vinson & Elkins' white-collar and government investigations practice as partner. Ward's past experience includes working with companies such as Target, Adobe, Cisco and McKesson and serving as assistant U.S. attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Minneapolis. He will be based out of Vinson & Elkins' San Francisco office, where he will advise clients on corporate compliance.

Tracy Shapiro returned to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati following a stint as a partner in DLA Piper's data protection, privacy and security group. Prior to joining DLA Piper, Shapiro worked in Wilson Sonsini's privacy practice for six years. She rejoins the firm's privacy and cybersecurity practice as a partner in San Francisco. She handles matters related to privacy, data security and advertising.

The San Francisco office of Atheria Law grew with the addition of associates Andrew Brown and Matthew Tseng. Brown focuses his practice on cybersecurity, data breach, business interruption and intellectual property. Tseng focuses his practice on cybersecurity, data breach and privacy claims and, according to LinkedIn, and previously worked at the Law Office of Jeffrey P. Blum.

JAMS added Abby B. Silverman as an arbitrator and mediator in its San Diego Resolution Center. Silverman will handle employment matters, and she has experience with discrimination, retaliation, employment agreement, wrongful termination, founder/company, competition, corporate governance and trade secret and confidential information. Before joining JAMS, she was the owner of her own disputes resolutions firm, Abby Silverman Weiss. Prior to that, she was a litigator at Baker McKenzie.

Snell & Wilmer announced that it opened a new office in San Diego, which marks the firm's third office in California. Partners Jeffrey D. Morton and Steffi Gascón Hafen are relocating to the new office, which is currently operating remotely due to COVID-19 concerns. The new office's primary focus will be on biotech intellectual property matters and tax, private client and labor and employment services.

Privacy and data security litigator Spencer Persson joined Davis Wright Tremaine's national security and privacy team as partner. He joins the firm's Los Angeles office from Norton Rose Fulbright. He focuses his practice on data privacy and consumer class actions cases.

John H. Stephens, a partner at Mulvaney Barry, was appointed to the University of California Hastings College of the Law Foundation board of trustees. Stephens handles business, real estate and commercial litigation and real estate transactions and is based in San Diego. He graduated from UC Hastings College of Law in 1978.

Alston & Bird brought on Jeff Carlin as counsel in its Los Angeles office. Carlin joins from Latham & Watkins and focuses his practice on environmental litigation. He has experience with cases involving state and federal environmental and land use laws.