Firm Watch
Jun. 25, 2002
Pillsbury Winthrop: COMMERCIAL LITIGATORS GO TO LATHAM & WATKINS
Commercial litigators Stephen Stublarec and Christopher Byers have left San Francisco's Pillsbury Winthrop to join the growing Bay Area litigation department at Latham & Watkins.
The two partners resigned June 12 from Pillsbury Winthrop.
Separately, Glenn Snyder, managing partner of Pillsbury Winthrop's San Francisco office, says his firm has pushed back the start date for some incoming first-year associates from fall to December and January to "even out workloads" for existing associates.
Seventeen associates in northern California, 17 in Los Angeles, and 21 in New York will be affected, Snyder says.
"Our production has been a little bit off-target, and we wanted to give our existing associates an opportunity to be fully productive this year," Snyder explains.
Snyder says the affected associates were "understanding," given anxiety about recent layoffs throughout the legal industry. In November, Pillsbury laid off 22 associates from its Palo Alto and New York City offices.
The firm does not "expect to make [more] layoffs, but we're not making a no-layoff pledge," Snyder says.
As for Stublarec's and Byers' move, Greg Lindstrom, Latham & Watkins' San Francisco office managing partner, says the partners will "bring with them significant client relationships," meaning both clients and matters.
"These are significant players," Lindstrom says.
Stublarec, 51, has litigated, among other matters, insurance, unfair business practice, trade secrets and securities fraud cases. For six years, Stublarec and a psychologist taught a course about "how juries receive and evaluate evidence and decide cases" at Stanford Law School.
Byers, 41, also specializes in complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on defense of consumer class actions, unfair competition cases and insurance and reinsurance disputes. His clients include Bay Area Rapid Transit, Swiss Re Life & Health Insurance and Fidelity.
The departures leave Pillsbury Winthrop with 190 lawyers in San Francisco and 90 in Palo Alto. Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins employs 100 attorneys in San Francisco and 60 in its Menlo Park office.
Lindstrom says he expects Latham & Watkins' attorney count to grow in Northern California by 20 percent this year and in the near future, until the firm is competitive in size with Bay Area competitors Pillsbury Winthrop, Morrison & Foerster and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
"We have the client base and the infrastructure to permit us to grow to a much larger size," Lindstrom says.
Staff Writer
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
Jeremy_Ellis@dailyjournal.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 213-229-5424
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com