Real estate lawyer Roxana K. Chamouillé left Freeman Freeman & Smiley to join Buchalter as a shareholder. She joins the firm's Orange County office and will represent property owners, purchasers and local, regional and nationwide institutional lenders in commercial real estate financing acquisitions and dispositions. Also joining Buchalter as shareholder is Rajnish Puri, who joins the Los Angeles office from Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. He works in the corporate transactions group, handling mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, joint ventures, private placements of equity and debt securities, and other business transactions.

The San Jose office of Hopkins & Carley grew with the addition of shareholders Eric C. Bellafronto and Karin M. Cogbill. Both attorneys worked at Littler Mendelson prior to the move, where Bellafronto was previously the San Jose office managing shareholder. Bellafronto and Cogbill will work in Hopkins & Carley's employment and labor practice.

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart promoted four of its California attorneys. Los Angeles-based Aaron Cole, Ryan Crosner and Michael Thomas and Orange County-based Angela Pak are now shareholders with the firm. All four of the new shareholders handle employment law matters.

Nixon Peabody announced its 2020 class of partners, which included Los Angeles attorney Sonia Nayak. Nayak focuses her practice on community development finance issues such as new markets tax credits, affordable housing ad commercial lending. She works to gain funding for community development projects within California and the United States.

San Francisco-based Shartsis Friese promoted Florence Jao and Danielle Zaragoza to partnership. Jao and Zaragoza work in the firm's family wealth planning group, where they handle matters related to estate planning, estate and trust administration, estate and gift taxation, charitable gift planning and probate.

Former Irell & Manella lawyers Gregory B. Klein and Michael W. Kaplan joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as partners in the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice. At Irell & Manella, Klein and Kaplan were partners, and Kaplan was co-chair of the transactions practice and a member of the executive committee. Both lawyers focus their practices on private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and related corporate matters and are based in Los Angeles.

Oakland boutique firm Medina Orthwein promoted Kevin Love Hubbard, formerly a senior associate, to the partnership. Hubbard litigates civil rights cases on behalf of marginalized clients. His experience includes individual and class employment discrimination and wage-and-hour claims and constitutional claims involving police and prison misconduct.

Jeff Burton and Tim Rawson joined Fish & Richardson as litigation associates in San Diego. Burton handles intellectual property matters related to electrical and computer technologies, telecommunications, medical devices and nanotechnology. Before joining Fish, he was a law clerk with the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rawson primarily focuses on patent litigation in the telecommunications, gaming, automotive, food and beverage, consumer products and semiconductor industries. He was a judicial law clerk for Judge Jimmie V. Reyna of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Pircher, Nichols & Meeks brought on William Swanson as an associate in its real estate department. Swanson was previously an honors intern in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission trading and markets division in Washington, D.C. He is now based in Los Angeles.

Kate Sullivan Morgan, formerly a member of Dentons' insurance practice group, is now special counsel at Foley & Lardner. She works in the firm's San Francisco office in the business law department and insurance practice group. She advises clients on insurance and health care regulatory issues.

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton's San Francisco office expanded with the addition of partners Brendan Dolan and Lucky Meinz. Dolan and Meinz join the firm's labor and employment practice group from Vedder Price, where they were shareholders. At Vedder Price Dolan was chair of the West Coast labor and employment practice area.

Vedder Price, meanwhile, brought on shareholder Robert M. Crea in San Francisco. Crea joins the firm's investment services group after serving as of counsel at K&L Gates. He advises clients on fund formation, product structuring, regulatory and compliance, performance presentation and securities law.

In a group of 17 lawyers Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe promoted to partnership, seven were based in California. In San Francisco Orrick's promotions included John Harrison in the technology companies group; Daniel Lopez in the mergers and acquisitions and private equity practice; Louise Gibbons in the energy and infrastructure practice; Betsy Lee in the IP practice; and Jennifer Lee in the complex litigation practice. In Silicon Valley the firm promoted Robert Uriarte and Jason Yu in the intellectual property practice.

Retired U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the Central District of California is now a neutral at Judicate West. He will conduct mediations, arbitrations and private judging assignments from Judicate West's Santa Ana office. Guilford spent nearly 14 years working as a judge and 31 years as a trial lawyer prior to that.

Former Reed Smith partner David Mittelman joined Rimon as a corporate partner in San Francisco. In addition to corporate work, Mittelman handles matters related to financial services, private clients and technology. He advises clients on securities transactions, capital market offerings, corporate governance, internal investigations and regulatory compliance.

Paloma Peracchio and Mitch Wrosch left Burke, Williams & Sorensen to take on shareholder positions at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. Both attorneys focus their practice on private-sector wage-and-hour class and representative actions. Percchio is based in Los Angeles, and Wrosch is based in Orange County.