Thursday, February 4, 2010
Page 3
Greenberg Traurig Opens Office in San Francisco, Fifth in State
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The international law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP has opened a San Francisco office, its fifth in the state.
Greenberg Traurig, which began as a local firm in Miami in 1967 but has undergone rapid expansion throughout the last two decades, opened the San Francisco office on Monday. With nearly 1,800 lawyers, the firm is reportedly the seventh largest U.S.-based firm.
Joining the firm as managing shareholders in San Francisco are business, intellectual property and employment litigation attorney Samuel B. Shepherd and litigator Kenneth Steinthal, who focuses on trying cases in the music and broader media industries.
John Pavolotsky joins as of counsel.
Shepherd was a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP in its Silicon Valley office. Steinthal joins after practicing at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP since the beginning of his legal career in 1978, and where he was a partner since 1986 and co-chair of that firm’s IP/Media Litigation group.
The office is expected to have 12 to 15 attorneys by month’s end, the firm said.
“We have met with many talented attorneys over the past year, looking for a fit that considered client needs as well as firm culture,” firm President Matt Gorson said in a statement. “We found that fit in Sam and Kenny. Their experience, not only in providing legal services across a multitude of industries, but also in building strong practices where collaboration and quality are core values, was key in assisting us with establishing this new important element of our presence in California.”
Greenberg Traurig established a presence in California with the opening of its Los Angeles office in 2000, later expanding to Orange County, Sacramento, and Silicon Valley. The expansion to San Francisco will bring the firm to more than 200 lawyers in California.
“San Francisco is a critical market for the global finance industry, as well as for the media, entertainment and technology industries,” Steinthal said. “It is a hub for film, music and evolving entertainment and new media platforms as well as sophisticated and emerging technologies.”
Steinthal, who litigates in state and federal courts, as well as before copyright tribunals in the U.S. and internationally and before other arbitral bodies worldwide, also lectures on copyright issues and is a former adjunct professor of law at his alma mater, Fordham Law School in New York.
Shepherd, who represents California companies in the technology, health, aerospace, hospitality, waste and media industries, has a law degree and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He has been a trial advocacy instructor at Stanford Law School since 1999 and is a guest legal commentator for the Silicon Valley Business Network.
Pavolotsky was previously corporate counsel at software manufacturer SugarCRM. He is a graduate of UC Davis Law School.
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