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Ex-Federal Prosecutor to Chair Litigation at Latham & Watkins

Jake Ryan has been appointed to chair the litigation department at Latham & Watkins LLP’s San Diego office. Ryan, 46, is a trial lawyer who focuses on intellectual property litigation, white-collar criminal defense, government investigations and other complex business litigation. Ryan was a lead partner representing the global paper company America Chung Nam in a recent California jury trial that resulted in a $13.1 million jury verdict and $5 million punitive damage award following a four-week trade secrets and unfair competition trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. Ryan was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago from 2003 to 2007, where he prosecuted cases involving white-collar fraud, terrorism, tax evasion and organized crime. He is also a former Navy pilot.

Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a yearlong charitable partnership in support of the Wounded Warrior Project, including a kickoff luncheon last week, where partner and veteran Dave Carothers introduced 9/11 survivor Lt. Kevin Shaeffer as a guest speaker. Shaeffer was working on the first floor of the Pentagon’s C-ring when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred and suffered severe burns over nearly 50 percent of his body. After a grueling recovery at Washington’s Hospital Center’s Burn Center, he served with 26 other professional staff members on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission. The firm will present a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project at the lunch.

The Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP deal team of Jason Schendel, Bill Wyatt, John Tishler, Carrie McNally, Nika Palama, Robyn Young and Dandan Chen represented Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. in a deal to refinance of the company’s debt. Kratos is a San Diego-based technology company providing mission-critical products and services for U.S. national security. The public offering involves $625 million in 7 percent senior secured notes due 2019, upon which Kratos will pay interest on the notes semiannually. Kratos intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to refinance its existing 10 percent senior secured notes due 2017 and to pay all fees and expenses related, and couldn’t have done it without the Sheppard Mullin team.

Fish & Richardson has developed a mobile app that focuses on post-grant proceedings, one of the fastest-growing areas of patent law. Fish’s post-grant app can be downloaded for free and is available for the iPhone and Android devices. The app provides a comprehensive range of resources for practitioners, including descriptions of each proceeding, including timelines, webinars and related articles; up-to-date listing of all district court stays relating to inter partes review proceedings, including a downloadable court order for each. I think Fish is the first to provide this information. “Post-grant work requires a potent combination of technical know-how, patent prosecution skills and litigation savvy,” said Karl Renner and Dorothy Whelan, principals and co-chairs of the firm’s post-grant practice group.

Keith Solar, a shareholder in Buchanan

Ingersoll & Rooney, has been selected as Water Law Attorney of the Year in the California 2014 Global Awards. Solar, the managing shareholder of

Buchanan’s San Diego office, represents public and private clients primarily in connection with water rights and water-related issues. He has also done work involving the U.S. tuna industry, real estate matters and commercial law issues. He has experience negotiating and documenting the purchase, sale or lease of groundwater, adjudicated groundwater rights, privately owned water systems, shares in mutual water companies and public-private partnerships for municipal water systems.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently adopted an amendment to the county code to prohibit the use of electronic smoking devices in places where tobacco smoking is banned, including public buildings in unincorporated areas and parks. Danielle

Moore, partner at Fisher & Phillips thinks you should talk to your clients about a policy to address e-cigarette smoking in the workplace, despite the fact that there is no state law in California prohibiting e-cigarettes. But this is California, where we get a new law nearly every day. Battery-powered e-cigarettes are becoming really popular, despite only being around about a dozen years. Sales in the United States of the more than 200 types of e-

cigarettes available are estimated at more than $200 million annually. In a study released last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that one out of every five adult smokers in the U.S. has tried e-cigarettes, up from one in 10 in 2012. Moore said part of the problem for employers is that e-cigarettes suffer from an identity crisis. They have not yet been officially classified by regulatory bodies as traditional cigarettes, nor is their use currently considered “smoking.”

Randy Frisch is vice chancellor of business and administration at National University, and former publisher of the San Diego Business Journal. He is licensed to practice law in California, Nevada and Idaho.

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