February 1, 2012
THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT
By Doug Sherwin
SAN DIEGO – Five more partners have left the law firm Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP ahead of its planned March 1 merger with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
Corporate attorneys Dennis Doucette, Eli Mansour and Jason Femrite are joining Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP as it opens a new office in Del Mar Heights, while intellectual property litigators Callie Bjurstrom and Peter Hahn are going to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
“We continually look for strategic growth opportunities that make sense to our clients and the firm,” Procopio’s managing partner Tom Turner said in a statement. “Dennis, Jason and Eli have outstanding qualifications and will be valuable assets to our corporate practice.”
The trio of attorneys will be part of Procopio’s business and technology practice team.
Doucette practices in corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and venture financing. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law.
Mansour’s diverse transactional practice includes international business and intellectual property transactions, licensing, equipment finance and aviation law.
Femrite, meanwhile, focuses his practice on the representation of both private and publicly held companies, funds and investment firms in a wide range of transactions – from structure and formation to capitalization and finance, and sale and acquisition.
Procopio initially will take over Luce Forward’s former space on High Bluff Drive on a short-term basis but will soon seek to expand in the area long term.
“We see Del Mar Heights as a nice complement to our downtown and Carlsbad offices,” Turner said, “and look at it as a strategic growth area, particularly for our corporate and intellectual property practices.”
San Diego legal recruiter Larry Watanabe of the search firm Watanabe Nason LLC brokered the transaction between Doucette, Mansour, Femrite and Procopio.