You know some really terrific attorneys. You should nominate at least one of them for the third annual San Diego Business Journal’s Best of the Bar. This annual recognition of local legal talent is a showcase for San Diego’s top attorneys, who are nominated and vetted by their peers. It is a great resource for San Diegans who need legal services, and a resume booster for anyone nominated. It will only take you a few minutes to nominate at the Business Journal website.
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Megan Chacon and Veronica Sandoval have joined Fish & Richardson. Chacon joins the firm’s litigation group. Her practice emphasizes complex patent litigation across a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceutical compounds and delivery systems, biotechnology, chemicals, medical devices and consumer products. Prior to joining Fish, Chacon practiced as a patent litigator at a leading intellectual property law firm in New York focusing on Hatch-Waxman litigation.
Sandoval also joins the firm’s litigation group. Prior to joining Fish, she served as a judicial extern to Judge Charles K. Wiggins of the Washington Supreme Court and as an extern at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to law school, Sandoval earned her doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology and was a medical liaison for two pharmaceutical companies.
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Dinsmore & Shohl LLP has merged with Leventhal Law, a litigation law firm founded in 2012 by Joseph Leventhal, a former White House attorney who served as deputy assistant to the vice president.
“Establishing a West Coast presence is essential to support our clients’ current business needs,” said George H. Vincent, Dinsmore’s managing partner and chairman. “We focused on California given the wealth of innovation in the state and discovered we have a lot of synergies with Leventhal Law.”
Leventhal Law represents Fortune 250 corporations, emerging companies and high-profile individuals.
“We share the philosophy of emphasizing long-term relationships, not short-term goals,” Leventhal said. “We both strive to achieve smart legal solutions that are also good business results for our clients.”
Dinsmore has been growing. In the last year, it merged with intellectual property boutique Gifford Krass and Huddleston Bolen, one of the oldest law firms in West Virginia. With the Leventhal Law merger, Dinsmore has 625 attorneys with locations in 21 cities throughout California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.
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Robert S. Brewer has joined Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek as of counsel. Brewer’s practice focuses on a variety of civil litigation and white-collar defense matters, including government investigations, fraud, business and commercial torts, health care and intellectual property disputes. Prior to joining SCMV, Brewer was a partner in the San Diego office of Jones Day. He also ran for San Diego County district attorney in 2014.
Brewer gained significant trial experience as a prosecutor in Los Angeles, serving as a deputy district attorney and as an assistant U.S. attorney.
Before entering the field of law, Brewer was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam for 15 months as an advisor to the Vietnamese Airborne Division, in combat in both Cambodia and South Vietnam, and an operations officer with MACSOG. He was highly decorated.
Brewer became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1998. Two other SCMV attorneys are also fellows, Gerald McMahon and Reginald Vitek, making SCMV the only San Diego law firm with three members of this prestigious, invitation-only organization. Membership is based on mastering the art of advocacy and a professional career marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality.
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More Seltzer news: Partner, and former U.S. Attorney Gregory A. Vega has helped establish Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration. The group met with President Obama recently to outline the goals of responding to the crisis of widespread unnecessary incarceration while ensuring community safety. The group is comprised of 130 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and attorneys general from across the country, joining together as a surprising new voice calling for reform in our criminal justice system.
Vega, whose legal practice focuses on corporate counseling and litigation, specialized criminal defense and U.S./Mexico international transactions, is the president elect of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys.
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Robert D. Wilson III and Travis K. Jang-Busby have joined Brown Law Group as associates. Wilson comes to the firm from Gordon & Rees, where he served as senior counsel. In this capacity, Wilson represented management and employers in employment-related claims before courts and administrative agencies throughout California. Among Wilson’s published decisions is Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (Hohnbaum) (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004 which is the landmark California Supreme Court wage and hour decision addressing the proper interpretation of California’s meal and rest period statutes.
Jang-Busby joins Brown Law Group after serving at San Diego Law Corp. where he prosecuted national and statewide class actions under FLSA and the California Labor Code. In addition, Jang-Busby prosecuted and defended complex representative actions under the Private Attorneys General Act, and investigated, defended and prosecuted claims for discrimination, wrongful termination and retaliation.
Randy Frisch is vice chancellor of business administration at National University and is a former publisher of the San Diego Business Journal. He is licensed to practice law in California, Nevada and Idaho.
