September 10, 2007

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Rebecca U. Cho

LOS ANGELES – Former longtime Latham & Watkins corporate partner David Hernand has joined Los Angeles-based rival Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as partner in the firm’s Century City office.

Hernand is the third California corporate partner in recent months to join Gibson Dunn, a firm that rarely hires lateral partners in California. Corporate attorney J. Keith Biancamano joined the downtown Los Angeles office as a partner from Fulbright & Jaworski in April. Two months later, the Orange County office added Terry Allen, formerly of O’Melveny & Myers, to its ranks as a corporate partner.

The firm has hired six California lateral partners in the last two years.

Hernand said he left Latham after more than a decade at the firm in part because he saw greater opportunities to combine technology and media in his practice at Gibson Dunn.

“In the last year, Gibson has added a number of M&A specialists to beef up its M&A capabilities,” Hernand said. “Latham has a fairly deep bench in that area and I could make more of an impact here.”

Hernand has been with Latham since 1994 and co-founded the firm’s venture and technology group in 1999. That group has grown to 135 attorneys. His work has focused on public and private mergers and acquisitions, corporate securities and the representation of technology companies.

In August, Hernand helped close a $700 million deal for online game company Club Penguin when it was acquired by Disney. In 2005, he represented SeeBeyond Technology Corporation in Sun Microsystems, Inc.’s acquisition of the company for $387 million.

Hernand took a two-year break from Latham & Watkins in 2000 to work as managing director at Idealab, a Pasdena-based technology company. He received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1992.

The partner placement firm Watanabe Nason Schwartz & Lippman brokered the move.

Gibson Dunn has 215 attorneys in its Los Angeles offices and 800 lawyers firmwide.

Latham & Watkins has 300 attorneys in its Los Angeles office and 1,900 attorneys worldwide.