July 9, 2008
THE RECORDER
By Niraj Chokshi
SAN FRANCISCO – Partner F. Curt Kirschner Jr. has left O’Melveny & Myers for Jones Day in San Francisco.
Kirschner spent 22 years at O’Melveny where he was a partner in the labor and employment practice.
“It was an easy choice because it was a practice where we’re strong and where we want to grow and where we’ve got a lot of business,” said Robert Mittelstaedt, the managing partner of Jones Day’s San Francisco office.
Kirschner’s practice focuses on complex labor and employment disputes, especially in health care. He is the designated outside labor counsel to the American Hospital Association and he has also represented clients in various other industries including the public sector, investment services and broadcasting, he said.
Kirschner made the move because Jones Day has “one of the largest and best health care labor practices in the country,” he said. “I felt it was a better fit for me.”
He was also the firmwide head of O’Melveny’s work-coordination program, through which work is assigned, and was the chairman of the San Francisco office’s strategic planning committee.
Jones Day has picked up 13 lateral partners in California this year, five of them in San Francisco.
While the decision to leave O’Melveny was both sad and difficult, Kirschner said, “every 22 years, change can be good.”