Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, announced that Brandon Gantus has rejoined the firm as a partner and co-leader of the employee benefits and compensation practice. Based in San Francisco, Gantus focuses on representing public and private companies on benefits and compensation matters.

Akin is excited to announce the addition of a leading three-partner transactions team in London. Justin Stock, Stephen Rosen and David Bresnick all join from Cooley, where Justin was managing partner of the London office and Stephen headed the London corporate practice. Justin will join as Akin’s international head of the technology practice, and will, with Stephen and David, build on Akin’s top tier technology transactions platform.

Alston & Bird has boosted its Finance Group and Structured & Warehouse Finance Team by adding partner Boong-Kyu (B.K.) Lee in New York. B.K. focuses his practice on advising issuers, underwriters, and financial institutions on a wide range of structured finance transactions, including public and private securitizations across key asset classes.
 

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP expands its Tax-Exempt Organizations & Philanthropy Practice with Shareholder Erika Mayshar, who will chair the group. She will be based in the firm’s Orange County and Los Angeles offices.

Holland & Knight has strengthened its Public Policy & Regulation Group with the addition of John Vaughan as a partner in Los Angeles. Mr. Vaughan previously led the Product and Corporate Counsel legal teams and served as Interim Chief Privacy Officer at Verily, an Alphabet Inc. company.

A&O Shearman is expanding its market-leading global Debt Finance practice with the hire of Filippo Crosara as a lender-side leveraged finance partner in London.

Filippo joins from Barclays Investment Bank, where he was a managing director and leading member of its global leveraged finance execution team with an industry-wide reputation across the London market. 

Global law firm Hogan Lovells announced that Jason Downs, who served as Chief Deputy Attorney General (AG) for the District of Columbia during the tenure of former D.C. AG Karl Racine, has joined as a partner in the firm’s Washington D.C. office. Downs joins from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, where he co-chaired the firm’s State Attorneys General practice group, as well as Brownstein’s Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) group.

International professional services firm gunnercooke has continued its rapid growth in the second quarter of 2024, welcoming 48 new colleagues in the UK, Germany, Austria and USA. This includes 27 Partners, four Operating Partners, three associates, four paralegals and ten other support staff. This brings the total number of new starters to 98 since the beginning of the year.

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP continues the expansion of its White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice with the addition of Tracy S. Combs in the San Francisco office. During Combs’ eight-year tenure at the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), she served in a variety of roles in Salt Lake City and San Francisco, most recently as director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office, where she oversaw some of the office’s most high-profile enforcement actions that had impact throughout the United States. 

Dentons announces that Jill Nicholson has joined the Firm’s Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy practice as a partner resident in its Chicago office. Nicholson brings extensive experience in commercial bankruptcy and insolvency matters, creditors’ rights, out-of-court workouts and restructurings, and complex multidistrict financial services litigation.