Allen Matkins announced that Jennifer R. Jeffers has joined the firm as senior counsel in its land use, environmental and natural resources group and will be based in the firm's San Francisco office. Jeffers brings more than 13 years of land use and natural resources regulatory experience to the firm and works throughout California across all asset types on land use, zoning, permitting, and compliance issues. She counsels public, private and non-profit clients on all phases of project development, acquisition, due diligence, design, environmental review, entitlement approvals, and project construction. Before joining Allen Matkins, Jeffers was a partner and led the land use practice at Stice & Block, an environmental, land use, and real estate firm in Oakland. Prior to that, she was a senior attorney in the environment and energy practice group in Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office.

Norton Rose Fulbright announced that employment and labor lawyer Debbie Birndorf has joined its Los Angeles office as a partner. With more than 30 years of experience, Birndorf was previously the founding and managing partner at Birndorf Law Offices, an employment counselling and litigation boutique representing California employers and executives. She represents employers in all aspects of employment law, including defense of harassment and discrimination claims, wage claims, wage and hour class actions, Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims, disability claims and misappropriation of trade secrets. Birndorf also drafts and reviews employment contracts, severance agreements, employee handbooks and personnel policies and advises employers on day-to-day employee relations matters, including hirings, firings, layoffs and compliance with federal and California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) acts.