Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Page 3
Former Wells Fargo Senior Counsel Joins Sheppard Mullin
National Firm Hawkins & Parnell Expands Los Angeles Presence
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer
Former Wells Fargo Senior Counsel Bradley E. Wolf has joined Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP’s Los Angeles as special counsel in its Finance and Bankruptcy practice group, the firm said Friday.
Wolf oversaw commercial workouts and bankruptcies within the wholesale bank for nine years, the firm said, and will represent financial institutions and others in complex financial transactions including loan restructurings, workouts and creditor’s rights.
A graduate of UC Berkeley and the USC Gould School of Law, Wolf was admitted to the State Bar in 1990 and has represented lenders in multi-lender workouts and those who provide the primary source of credit to borrowers, and has also represented financial institutions and other investors in direct debt and equity investments.
He is also admitted to practice law in New York.
In other news, the national civil defense law firm Hawkins & Parnell LLP announced yesterday that it has expanded its Los Angeles presence, adding four new attorneys to its Product Liability and Asbestos Litigation Group in the last month. The firm is known as Hawkins, Parnell & Thackston in Los Angeles and Dallas and as Hawkins & Parnell in Atlanta and in Charleston, W.Va.
Lynn Finateri Silbiger, Jennie Levin, Holly Acevedo and Claire Weglarz joined the firm’s Los Angeles office, which opened in August last year with five attorneys.
Robert Thackston, partner-in-charge of the office, identified the improvement of efficiencies of the asbestos docket in the Los Angeles Superior Court as one of the firm’s first priorities, and said the firm was also currently “leading an effort to overhaul the outdated Los Angeles General Orders to match them with the realities of 2009.”
The Superior Court first established the orders in the late 1970s along with an Asbestos Department to manage asbestos exposure litigation, and retained a number of the orders in 1996 after the department closed and cases were transferred to independent calendar courts.
Finateri Silbiger joined the firm as of counsel on Jan. 5, and focuses on product liability, warranty, and general liability matters, including construction and commercial litigation.
A graduate of Arizona State University and Loyola Law School, she was admitted to the State Bar in 1998 and also has experience in automotive, aviation and industrial equipment-related product litigation.
Levin and Acevedo joined the firm as associates on Jan. 15, with Levin focusing on product liability, toxic tort, and environmental litigation, and Acevedo on tort litigation, product liability, and premises liability.
Levin attended Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Boalt Hall School of Law before admission to the State Bar in 2007, and she also holds experience in antitrust litigation, securities litigation, and entertainment and media litigation.
Acevedo was admitted to the State Bar in 2003, and is a graduate of the UC Santa Barbara and the University of La Verne College of Law.
Weglarz joined the firm as an associate on Jan. 27 and handles complex civil litigation, concentrating on product liability, toxic tort litigation, and general civil litigation. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University and the University of San Diego School of Law, she was admitted to the State Bar in 2004.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company