ALEJANDRO GARCIA VILLALPANDO has joined Akerman Senterfitt, where he will focus on domestic and international tax and corporate issues as a shareholder in the firm’s New York office. He was last a counsel with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle.
Restructuring lawyer JOHN MITCHELL is the latest addition to Baker & McKenzie’s corporate and securities practices, which he joins as a partner. Mitchell will be based in the firm’s Dallas arm, and is making the move from Vinson & Elkins, where he was a partner.
Barnes & Thornburg has welcomed DAVID DURM, the former general counsel at Altisource Asset Management Corporation. The attorney joins the firm’s real estate department as a partner in the Indiana office. He advises clients on the development of medical offices and hospital facilities and on issues surrounding real estate investment trusts.
Los Angeles entertainment boutique Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof & Fishman has added former Greenberg Traurig shareholder KENNETH BURY. Bury specializes in transactional work for music artists.
Holland & Knight’s Boston office has nabbed a four-lawyer group from McCarter & English. BRIAN LEARY and JEFFREY STOLER join the firm’s business practice as partners, while DIANE MCDERMOTT will be working as a partner with Holland & Knight’s real estate team. RICHARD HOLTZ also joins the real estate team, as senior counsel.
Jones Day has announced the launch of an Amsterdam Office, opened February 1 with two new hires: MARCEL VAN DE VORST, formerly a partner at Norton Rose, and MARC RIJKAART VAN CAPPELLEN, who was last a partner with Baker & McKenzie. Both specialize in mergers and acquisitions.
DAVID EHRENWERTH is making his return to K&L Gates after two-and-a-half years spent advising the Obama administration in real estate matters. Most recently, Ehrenwerth worked as associate commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, a branch of the U.S. General Services Administration, where he helped manage the governments national real estate portfolio of nearly 400 million square feet of space. The attorney joins K&L Gates as a partner in the real estate investment, development, and finance practice, based in Pittsburgh.
Trusts and estates lawyer DAVID HIRSBERG, formerly a partner with London-based private client boutique Withers, has joined Kaye Scholer’s West Palm Beach office as a partner. Hirsberg will be working on international tax and succession and charitable planning matters with the firm’s tax and private clients department.
King & Spalding has launched an international dispute practice in its Moscow office with the hire of Russian lawyer ILIA RACHKOV to lead the new group. Rachkov’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration. He worked in solo practice for the past year.
Kirkland & Ellis has welcomed back former tax associate DANIEL MEEHAN to work as a partner in Chicago. Meehan last worked as a partner at Cooley based in New York where he led the firmwide tax practice group. The attorney will focus his practice on a wide range of tax matters related to private fund formation, private equity transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.
THOMAS ROSCH just completed his term as commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission and is returning to Latham & Watkins, where he was a partner between 1994 and 2005. Rosch is joining as an of counsel in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office in the antitrust and competition practice group.
JIM LESHAW, who spent the past 25 years with Greenberg Traurig, is leaving to open his own firm Leshaw Law in downtown Miami and Key Biscayne, Florida. The firm will be focusing on mediations and arbitrations matters, as well as outside counsel in the United States and Latin America. The attorney was Greenberg’s Florida office head of bankruptcy and restructuring practice.
CHRISTOPHER AMANDES has lateraled to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to work in the firm’s environmental practice as a partner in Houston. Most recently, Amandes was a partner at Vinson & Elkins.
Proskauer Rose has hired employment litigator CONNIE BERTRAM, who last practiced with Cooley, where she was the head of both the labor and employment, and government contractor compliance practices in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Bertram joins Proskauer as a partner and will colead several of the firm’s groups in Washington, D.C., including the labor and employment practice.
Roetzel & Andress has added a new partner to its real estate group. JAMES INENDINO, who last practiced with Loeb & Loeb as a partner, will also be part of the financial institutions industry group and will be residing in the firm’s Chicago office.
Former Boies, Schiller & Flexner partner JOHN TOBER has left the firm to reopen the Tober Law Group, an 12-attorney firm specializing in corporate and transactional law and business litigation. Tober will reopen the old Miami office, and also announced the launch of a new New York arm. Tober had spent the past 10 years practicing with Boies Schiller’s business and securities litigation team.
Goldman Sachs’s managing director and associate general counsel ALLISON LIFF has left the company to join Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in the firm’s New York office. Liff, who oversaw financing, restructuring, and Goldman’s bank debt portfolio, will be a member of Weil’s banking and finance practice.
DONALD DAVIDSON, formerly a partner with Bingham McCutchen, has left the firm to join Winston & Strawn in San Francisco. Davidson will be working as a partner with the litigation practice, focusing on broker-dealers, investment advisers, and investment companies matters.
