Jessica Nall, with Baker McKenzie. (Courtesy photo.)

Baker McKenzie continues to beef up its presence in northern California, bringing on the chair of Farella Braun + Martel's white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice who had a lead role representing individuals involved in one of the largest data breaches in history.

Jessica Nall was an 18-year veteran of the San Francisco-based midsize firm before joining Baker McKenzie's North America litigation and government enforcement practice. She's the ninth partner to join Baker McKenzie's northern California offices since June.

"It's taking what I was doing, what I have been doing, blowing up, magnifying it, and taking it to a bigger platform and having access to and working with the amazing Baker team and their existing clients," Nall said. Her clients gave winning endorsements of Baker McKenzie when she spoke to them about the move.

Nall was the lead Farella attorney who represented both employees and executives at Yahoo after the internet giant reported two data breaches that affected 3 billion users. The data breaches, first reported in 2016, led to investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Federal Trading Commission, as well as a $117.5 million class action settlement.

Recalling her work for Yahoo, Nall said she hopes to work with more clients who are experiencing a crisis. Among the work Nall is bringing with her from Farella are investigations that are "cutting edge in the cryptocurrency area as well as regular technology company issues."

The Bay Area, where Nall will be based out of, is an attractive area for Baker McKenzie to expand in as its clients are frequently dealing with the intersection of technology, compliance and white-collar criminal defense, said Peter Tomczak, the chair of Baker McKenzie's North America litigation and government enforcement practice.

"Bringing her onto the team serves not only the Bay Area, but our clients who are focused on that intersection," Tomczak said.

Nall's June 1 start at Baker McKenzie comes nearly two months after the firm recruited Bradford Newman from Paul Hastings to lead Baker McKenzie's first-ever North America trade secrets practice. The firm has also added transactional lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Baker McKenzie had a very lackluster 2019 from a financial perspective, seeing its overall revenue grow by only 0.7% last year. As a result, DLA Piper surpassed Baker McKenzie for the No. 3 slot on the Am Law 100.

As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Baker McKenzie has reduced salaries for all non-partner attorneys by 15% in the United States. Both equity and nonequity partners will also see cuts, but the firm has declined to elaborate on what those cuts look like.

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