54.3 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Incoming Bar Association President Brings Hispanic Perspective

The San Diego County Bar Association is set to install Marcella McLaughlin as its 2013 president Dec. 7. She is the first Latino SDCBA president. McLaughlin has prosecuted cases in the District Attorney’s Office for more than seven years, and began her legal career in the City Attorney’s Office after graduating from California Western School of Law.

She has served as president of the California Western School of Law Alumni Association Board, board member of San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, and vice president of the National Latino Peace Officers Association.

Jon Williams, a partner at Boudreau Williams LLP, will serve as president-elect, and will be SDCBA president in 2014. Attorneys Ilona Antonyan, James Crosby, Ray Estolano, Danielle Hickman and Heather Riley have been elected by the SDCBA’s membership to serve three-year terms on the board. Incoming president of the SDCBA’s New Lawyer Division Negeen Mirreghabie will also serve a one-year term on the SDCBA Board of Directors in 2013. Nadia Bermudez, Lawrence Campitiello, Bob Gaglione, Sheryl Graf, Richard Huver, Laura Miller, Patrick Ojeil, Stacie Patterson, Thomas Penfield and Victor Torres will continue their service on the board through 2013.

Allergan Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire SkinMedica Inc., the privately held company’s topical aesthetics skin care business. Latham & Watkins LLP represented SkinMedica in the transaction, with a corporate team led from the firm’s local office by partners Scott Wolfe and Cheston Larson, with associates Nicole Baker and Matthew Ichinose. Partner Steven Chinowsky provided counsel on intellectual property matters and Holly Bauer worked on employee benefits matters. Under the terms of the agreement Allergan will pay SkinMedica $350 million upfront (subject to certain adjustments) for the business, which includes a variety of “physician dispensed” nonprescription aesthetic skin care products, and prescription products. The acquisition, which is expected to close later this year, does not include the SkinMedica Colorescience aesthetic makeup line.

Best Best & Krieger LLP elected three partners from across California to join the law firm’s executive committee, which makes key business decisions for the firm’s nine offices in the state and in Washington, D.C. Shawn D. Hagerty, who also serves as the city attorney for Santee and whose practice also focuses on water quality law, will represent San Diego on the committee. The firm’s outgoing San Diego executive committee member is James B. Gilpin, who spent several years at the helm of the law firm known for representing public agencies and private businesses.

In all, BB&K attorneys serve as city attorney to more than 30 cities across California and as general counsel to dozens of special districts. Hagerty has served as city attorney for Santee since 2003, and has been with the firm since 1996. He also serves as corporate counsel to Civic San Diego (formerly the Centre City Development Corp.), a nonprofit corporation that provides land use, economic development services and project management to downtown San Diego.

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP recruited a big name. Stephen Reiter has joined the firm’s leading Intellectual Property Department as counsel and is a member of the Health & Life Sciences team. Reiter is a registered patent attorney who focuses his practice in the biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. He has more than 30 years of experience addressing intellectual property counseling, transactional issues and all aspects of domestic and foreign patent prosecution. Dr. Reiter has held positions as in-house corporate counsel, and most recently was of counsel for Foley & Lardner LLP.

Patricia Lane was inducted as a fellow into the College of Law Practice Management at its annual meeting. Patti, as she is known outside the fellowship, is the director of administrative services for McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. She has been involved in legal management for more than 25 years and earned her Certified Legal Manager (CLM) in 1997.

Speaking of Patti’s firm, McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Lou Mezzullo was elected to National Estate Planning Hall of Fame last month at the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils’ annual conference in Florida. The NAEPC promotes a multidisciplinary approach to estate planning by supporting local estate planning councils and its members. As a partner in MLA’s Private Client Services practice, Mezzullo’s practice focuses on estate and business succession planning, taxation and employee benefits. Mezzullo is based in the firm’s Rancho Santa Fe office.

CaseyGerry, San Diego’s oldest plaintiff’s firm, has expanded its class action litigation practice team with the addition of veteran attorney Mark Ankcorn. Ankcorn, whose practice has been concentrated on consumer actions, is joining the firm as an attorney of counsel and will work closely with partner Gayle M. Blatt representing clients on complex litigation matters, including national class actions against the largest banks in the world. Among the defendants are Chase Bank, Bank of America and Discover Financial Services. In addition to his legal career, Ankcorn is an ordained rabbi with a master’s degree in rabbinic studies from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles.

Randy C. Frisch is the president and publisher of the San Diego Business Journal. He is licensed to practice law in California, Nevada and Idaho. He can be reached at rfrisch@sdbj.com.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-