Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Page 4
BuckleySandler Gains New Attorney in Los Angeles Office
Sidley Austin Elects Two to Partnernership
By a MetNews Staff Writer
BuckleySandler LLP yesterday announced the addition of Jay Laifman as counsel in its Los Angeles office.
Laifman previously served as general counsel for Reading International Inc., a cinema exhibition and real estate company whose principal assets are located in Texas, Australia and New Zealand. He also served as executive vice president and deputy general counsel at Countrywide Home Loans Inc., for 12 years.
Clinton Rockwell, managing partner of BuckleySandler’s Los Angeles office, remarked that the firm, with the addition of Laifman, “now has one of the largest concentrations of attorneys in one firm who offer regulatory and corporate experience to California’s consumer financial services industry.”
Rockwell said Laifman “was a natural fit” to join the firm “due to his extensive residential mortgage counseling experience developed during his tenure at Countrywide Home Loans.”
Laifman’s practice focuses on representing residential and commercial lenders in regulatory and compliance matters with an emphasis on the financial reform laws stemming from the Dodd-Frank Act, according to a release from his firm.
The attorney received his undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz in 1985 before attending UC Hastings College of the Law. He received the American Jurisprudence Award for Real Property and served as the chief managing editor for the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review before graduating and joining the State Bar in 1988.
In other news, Sidley Austin LLP yesterday announced the election of Ellyce R. Cooper and Samuel N. Tiu to partnership in the firm.
Michael C. Kelley, managing partner of Sidley’s Los Angeles office, said that each of the new partners “embodies Sidley’s commitment to quality, client service and a collegial culture.”
Cooper, 36, is a member of the firm’s White Collar practice. Her practice includes representing clients in connection with False Claims Act matters, including qui tam whistleblower lawsuits, accountant liability litigation and medical device and pharmaceutical matters, the firm said in a release.
The attorney graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from UC Berkeley before attending law school at UCLA, graduating Order of the Coif, and earning her license in 1999.
During law school, Cooper served as a judicial extern for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson of the Central District of California. She also was Articles Editor for the UCLA Law Review.
Tiu, 40, is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice. He works primarily in the areas of intellectual property and antitrust, involving a wide variety of technologies including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, computer animation and graphics, video and data transmission, network technology and video display technology. He also counsels clients in technology licensing transactions, including cross-border transactions.
He gradated summa cum laude, from Loyola Law School and joined the State Bar in 2001 after earning a degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from UCLA.
Tiu worked in the biotechnology industry for seven years before beginning his legal career and is fluent in Mandarin.
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