On the Move: Tracking the Ins and Outs of California Lawyers

Real estate lawyer Mitchell Poole joined Cozen O’Connor as a shareholder in the firm’s Santa Monica office. He handles real estate joint ventures, acquisitions, dispositions, restructurings, and workouts on behalf of investors. He previously served as partner in Sidley Austin‘s real estate practice.

Newmeyer & Dillion announced that it formally created a bankruptcy and restructuring practice within the firm. Partners Michael Krueger and James Ficenec will lead the practice, which will assist clients with a range of insolvency matters. Krueger and Ficenec are both based in Walnut Creek.

San Francisco-based Philip Albert left Davis Wright Tremaine to become a partner at Haynes and Boone. Albert, who’s previous experience includes a stint as a design engineer in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will work in Haynes and Boone’s intellectual property practice group. His patent prosecution experience includes technologies such as streaming, network protocols, network security, artificial intelligence, blockchain, animation and the Internet of Things.

Buchalter brought on former Greenberg Gross attorney Joshua M. Robbins to chair its white-collar and investigations practice. Robbins will split his time between the firm’s Los Angeles and Orange County offices. Robbins lead Greenberg Gross’ white-collar defense practice and largely focuses his practice on  fraud, corruption and theft claims. He also previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

O’Melveny & Myers partner Rich Goetz was elected co-chair of the Pacific Council on International Policy board of directors, alongside Rob Lovelace, vice chairman and director of the Capital Group Cos. Goetz, who will continue to co-chair O’Melveny’s litigation department in Los Angeles, is set to assume the role Jan. 1. He co-leads the Pacific Council’s Guantanamo Bay task force and serves as a director of the council.

Paul Grewal left his position as Facebook‘s vice president and deputy counsel to take on the role of chief legal officer at San Francisco-based cryptocurrency platform Coinbase. Prior to joining Facebook, where he worked for about four years, Grewal served as a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.