(January 4, 2012) - Reed Smith LLP today announced the promotion of 22 of its lawyers to the partnership, effective January 1, 2012. Sixteen of the new partners are based in the United States, five in the firm's offices in Europe, and one in its Hong Kong office.
"We are delighted to welcome these talented lawyers as the newest Reed Smith partners," said Gregory B. Jordan, the firm's Global Managing Partner. "Their promotions reflect their hard work, strong legal skills and consummate ability to foster and maintain the productive client relationships that comprise the heart of Reed Smith's practice focus. We congratulate each of them and anticipate their continued contributions to the firm."
In San Francisco, the three new partners are Svetlana G. Attestatova (Financial Industry Group), whose practice focuses on debt finance, including the representation of banks, private equity sponsors, hedge funds, and commercial, nonprofit and venture-capital-backed borrowers in secured and unsecured senior and subordinated debt transactions; syndicated and bilateral credit facilities; leveraged acquisition financings; cross-border financings; asset-based financings; and second-lien and third-lien loans; Jennifer J. Brady (Financial Industry Group), whose practice focuses primarily on commercial litigation matters, with an emphasis on the representation of financial services companies in a variety of business areas, including mortgages and banking sales practices, consumer claims, and loan enforcement actions in state and federal courts; and Paul W. Pitts (Life Sciences Health Industry Group), whose health care regulatory law practice focuses on advising hospitals, radiology and diagnostic imaging facilities, physician groups, and other health care providers on fraud and abuse laws, reimbursement and coverage issues, and participation in Medicare and Medicaid.
New partners in the Los Angeles office are Michael A. Garabed (Commercial Litigation), whose practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and intellectual property disputes, including trademark, copyright, trade secret and unfair competition law, particularly all phases of pre-trial litigation; and Kevin G. Lohman (Life Sciences Health Industry Group), whose product liability litigation practice focuses on the representation of medical device and pharmaceutical companies involved in complex product liability litigation.
The Chicago office's three new partners are Nicholas A. Bonarrigo (Corporate & Securities), who represents public and private companies in securities offerings and M&A transactions, and provides general corporate advice; Raven Moore (Intellectual Property), who serves as litigation counsel in intellectual property disputes involving patents, copyrights, and trademarks and trade secrets, and handles complex commercial disputes, at the trial court level and on appeal, involving securities fraud, commodities fraud, RICO, breach of contract and tortious interference; and Mel M. Justak (Tax, Benefits & Wealth Planning), whose practice focuses on sophisticated estate planning, particularly for private business owners and their families, including the use of grantor retained annuity trusts, intra-family sales, generation-skipping tax planning, family partnerships, marital agreements, insurance planning and buy-sell agreements.
Reed Smith's new partners in Philadelphia are Kevin A. Christmas (Corporate & Securities), whose practice focuses on representing public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, financing transactions and general corporate matters, including advising clients on the full life cycle of business issues, from company formation to exit strategies; and Roberta G. Torian (Financial Industry Group), an experienced bank regulatory and consumer compliance lawyer with years of in-house service at PNC, Mellon and Advanta, and whose practice focuses on banking law specialties such as OFAC/bank secrecy, FACT Act/privacy, electronic banking, credit card law, fair lending, deposit account products, and bank mergers and acquisitions.
The Pittsburgh office's new partners are Kimberly A. Craver (Labor & Employment), whose practice focuses on employment-related issues including discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wrongful discharge, especially litigation in federal and state courts and before federal and state administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and, Michael H. Sampson (Insurance Recovery), who actively counsels policyholders - including financial institutions, safety equipment manufacturers, nonprofits, and others - in disputes with their insurers. He not only represents policyholders in coverage litigation, but also represents clients in a variety of other complex civil and commercial litigation.
In the Washington, D.C., office, Rana J. Wright (Financial Industry Group) focuses on all aspects of investment company and investment advisor regulation and compliance, including advising mutual funds with disclosure materials, sales literature, service provider contracts and board presentations.
In Reed Smith's Richmond (Virginia) office, Jason H. Ballum (Global Regulatory Enforcement) has a practice focused on the representation of public school boards in cases arising out of employment, tort, and constitutional law, as well as disputes regarding special education.
New York-based Jason Cohen (Life Sciences Health Industry Group) is a commercial litigator with experience representing companies in a broad range of complex litigation, including commercial, financial services, pharmaceutical, product liability and consumer class actions.
Rounding out the new U.S. partners is Brian M. Rostocki (Commercial Litigation) in Wilmington (Delaware), whose practice emphasizes business and complex litigation nationwide, with an emphasis on matters before the Delaware Court of Chancery.
In Europe, Reed Smith's new partners include, in Paris, Daniel Kadar (Commercial Disputes), a French and German national, whose practice focuses on commercial law and liability matters, including breach of contracts, product liability and other business torts, as well as insolvency issues.
In London, Reed Smith advanced to partnership Helle M. Kjaerstad (Shipping), whose practice deals with a wide range of dry shipping litigation matters, including both commercial court and arbitration proceedings for owners, ship managers, charterers, P&I clubs, brokers and ship finance banks; Vassia Payiataki (Energy & Natural Resources), whose experience includes advising trading companies in issues arising out of contracts for the sale of goods in the international market, such as disputes relating to the trading and transportation of bulk commodities in arbitration at trade associations; Paul Skeet (Energy & Natural Resources), who represents clients in a wide range of both contentious and non-contentious matters relating to the sale, transportation and financing of commodities; and Robert A. Wilkins (Shipping), who specializes in ship finance, advising major international lenders and operators in a broad range of transactional shipping work, including all aspects of the financing, construction, leasing, sale, and purchase and operation of commercial vessels.
The Hong Kong office's new partner is Philson Wai Hin Ho (Litigation), who has a practice focused on financial services regulatory work and commercial litigation, including handling non-contentious financial regulatory work such as securities license applications, securities regulatory compliance obligations, and setting up offshore investment funds, as well as contentious issues such as general commercial litigation, regulatory investigations and employment advisory works.
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm with more than 1,600 lawyers in 23 offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm represents leading international businesses, from Fortune 100 corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its lawyers provide litigation and other dispute resolution services in multi-jurisdictional and other high-stakes matters; deliver regulatory counsel; and execute the full range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith is a preeminent advisor to industries including financial services, life sciences, health care, advertising, technology and media, shipping, energy and natural resources, real estate, manufacturing, and education. For more information, visit reedsmith.com.
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