October 2, 2000
THE CALIFORNIA LAW BUSINESS REVIEW
SAN DIEGO – Washington, D.C.’s McKenna & Cuneo expects Peter Ippolito, Mark Budwig and Steven Owen to lay the foundation for a construction litigation practice in the firm’s San Diego office.
The troika, recruited from Hillyer & Irwin, also in San Diego, are joining the firm over the three weeks between Aug. 16 and Sept. 25. Ippolito and Budwig are partners, Owen of counsel.
Richard Opper, McKenna’s San Diego environmental practice group head says the new local practice group complements McKenna’s considerable firmwide government contracts practice.
“It’s one of those happy coincidences where [their] interests … coincided with our interests in trying to find new areas that were synergistic with what we’re doing,” he says.
McKenna has 25 lawyers in its nine-year-old San Diego outpost and about 220 throughout the firm.
Robert Hanna, Hillyer’s managing partner, wishes his former colleagues luck.
“We regret the departure of Peter, Mark and Steve … We have enjoyed working with them over the last few decades and have appreciated their contributions to Hillyer & Irwin’s construction department,” Hanna says.
Hanna is quick to note that his firm’s construction department has emerged from the loss intact, adding that “Hillyer & Irwin’s construction department will remain one of the most experienced construction and surety groups in the region.”
McKenna’s lawyer transaction was handled by Lawrence Watanabe, of the Los Angeles-based legal search firm Watanabe & Nason.