Friday, December 13, 2002
Page 3
O’Melveny Loses Securities Litigator to Sheppard Mullin
By a MetNews Staff Writer
David R. Garcia, a local attorney who specializes in antitrust, securities and entertainment law, has left O’Melveny and Myers LLP to join Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP.
Garcia, 48, follows the path of James Sheppard, an Orange County native who left O’Melveny to join the firm that would become Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. That was in 1928, according to Sheppard Mullin’s Web site.
Both Sheppard Mullin and O’Melveny are celebrating their 75th anniversaries this year.
Garcia joined Sheppard Mullin’s Antitrust & Trade Regulation practice group at the firm’s downtown office as a partner on Monday. “So far it’s been wonderful,” he said about his first week.
Gary Halling, the practice group’s chair, said he was “thrilled” with the acquisition of the 19-year veteran, noting Garcia’s “experience with representing clients before the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as in investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Friday Dec. 6 was Garcia’s last day at O’Melveny’s Culver City office. He had been with that firm since 1990.
Garcia said that he is leaving behind many friends and wonderful attorneys at O’Melveny, where he was a partner. He decided to make the transition, he said, because “Sheppard has a first rate anti-trust capability” that he felt presented an exceptional opportunity for personal growth as a lawyer and in his practice.
He would not comment on whether his clients were following him in his cross-town move, but did say that he looked forward to continuing to work with clients that he had represented in the past.
The Florida-native received his law degree from Georgetown Law School in 1979 after graduating cum laude from Harvard University. He was admitted to the California State Bar in late 1990, and is also licensed to practice in New York, Washington D.C. and Florida.
Despite Garcia’s departure, O’Melveny is now the 18th largest law firm in the country, according to the National Law Journal’s 25th annual survey.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company