Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Page 3
Former Morrison & Foerster Partner McIntosh Joins Allen Matkins
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer
Former Morrison & Foerster partner Daniel G. McIntosh has joined Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP as partner and chair of its corporate practice group in its Los Angeles and Century City offices, Allen Matkins said yesterday.
A former co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Los Angeles Entertainment and Technology Group, McIntosh practices in entertainment and real estate law, and is a past president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association and the group’s current representative to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates.
Joe Davidson, firm-wide chair of Allen Matkins’ corporate practice group, said McIntosh’s presence represented a “strategic opportunity” in the firm’s expansion efforts given his “vast experience and long standing client relationships,” while managing partner Brian Leck praised McIntosh’s “impressive background” and high regard in the business community.
Admitted to the State Bar in 1972 after graduating from UC Berkeley and Boalt Hall School of Law, McIntosh has experience advising varied clients and industries, including West Los Angeles-based entertainment companies, interactive and new media businesses, manufacturers, managers, and investors in a wide range of corporate transactions, including financings, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures.
He also advises and represents clients on real estate transactions and financings, and has represented William Morris Agency for more than 20 years, including last year’s sale of the agency’s three office buildings and its long-term lease of a new world headquarters in Beverly Hills.
McIntosh was a partner with Beverly Hills entertainment law firm Kaplan Livingston prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the ABA Museum of Law, where he is vice president. He is also a past member of the boards of directors of Public Counsel and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Founded in 1977, Allen Matkins is a California-based firm with approximately 240 attorneys practicing out of seven offices. The firm’s other offices are located in Orange County, San Francisco, San Diego, Del Mar Heights and Walnut Creek.
In other news, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP announced Monday that former Dickstein Shapiro LLP partner Lindsay Conner has joined Manatt Phelps’ Los Angeles office as partner in the Entertainment & Media Practice of the firm’s Business, Finance and Tax Division.
The former head of Dickstein Shapiro LLP’s entertainment law practice, Conner focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, finance, production, and distribution transactions in the entertainment and media industries.
“[Conner] is recognized as one of the most accomplished lawyers in the industry, and represents many Blue Chip film and television franchises and financing sources in a variety of matters,” Manatt Phelps Co-Chair Gordon M. Bava said. “His blend of experience in corporate finance and entertainment is a perfect fit…[and he] will be a tremendous asset to our firm.”
Manatt Phelps Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner William T. Quicksilver identified corporate finance and entertainment as “among the firm’s core strengths,” and said the addition of Conner’s talents was consistent with the firm’s strategic expansion strategy.
Conner graduated from UCLA and Occidental College before attending Harvard School of Law. Admitted to the State Bar in 1980, he served from 1986 to 1994 as head of the Entertainment & Media department at former legal powerhouse Hill Wynne Troop & Meisinger.
In 1994, he left the legal profession to serve as the owner of motion picture and television development company 54th Street Productions, and then became chief operating officer of Internet media technology company I-Drop, Inc. five years later.
Conner returned to practice in 2006, when he joined Dickstein Shapiro.
Manatt Phelps also announced Monday that former Dickstein Shapiro attorney Tom Ara—who focuses on mergers and acquisitions, finance, production, and distribution transactions in the entertainment and media industries—has joined its Los Angeles office as counsel.
The firm provides legal and consulting services to a global client base from offices located in Los Angeles, Orange County, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sacramento, New York City, Albany, N.Y. and Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company