January 5, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO – Energy attorney Jeffrey Gray, who’s been on the firm’s executive committee for the past two years, stepped into the partner-in-charge role at the office on Tuesday. Gray took over from litigator Martin Fineman, who led the office for the past 12 years as it more than doubled in size.
Gray said one of his goals is to expand the employment, energy and litigation teams, which have driven growth over the past year.
“Martin’s done a very good job laying a foundation,” Gray said. He added that he’s looking to build on Fineman’s accomplishments rather than take a wildly different course.
“I think we’re in a very good position, coming off a year when the firm did very well and we’re looking to grow,” he said. “The challenge I have in the most general sense is creating an environment that’s going to allow the attorneys we have here to succeed and hopefully creating a place that others are going to want to join.”
When Fineman first took over, the office had 17 attorneys practicing in energy, telecommunications, media, litigation and health care. Today, its 40 lawyers focus on those areas, plus employment and labor, patent, corporate and licensing, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, environmental and ERISA work.
The office added five lateral associates in 2011, Gray said, most of them in employment and energy. This year he said he anticipates some partner-level hires, but he declined to give details publicly.
Gray, whose biggest clients include Calpine Corp., NaturEner USA and AltaGas Renewable Energy Pacific Inc., said the state’s robust regulatory environment drives his own practice.
For his part, Fineman is happy to be returning to just being a lawyer. “Trying cases is my first love,” Fineman said. “It was time to get back to that full time.”