October 16, 2012

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Kevin Lee

SAN FRANCISCO – A Boston-based law firm is making a second go in Northern California with a couple of lateral hires, including one of the founders of Goodwin Procter LLP’s San Francisco office.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC announced Monday the hiring of corporate and real estate lawyer Paul G. Churchill from Goodwin to serve as managing member of its fledgling San Francisco office.

Until last month, Churchill spent six years managing Goodwin’s San Francisco office, which opened in 2006. He also served on that firm’s executive committee from 2006 to 2009. Goodwin declined through a spokesman to comment on his move.

To accommodate their busy schedules, Churchill and Mintz Levin’s firmwide managing member, Robert I. Bodian, met several times in the Oakland and San Francisco airports as they sought to seal the deal. Churchill said his move was motivated in part by the chance to set up shop for another big law firm.

“Bob knows what it takes to build an office, and I know what it takes to build an office,” Churchill said. “It was the right move at the right time.”
The 400-lawyer firm now counts seven lawyers in its San Francisco office, which opened in March, and is shopping for more.

While Churchill focuses on filling out the office’s transactional practices, Mintz Levin has asked recently hired litigator Evan S. Nadel to build a litigation practice for the office.

Nadel joined Mintz Levin earlier this month from Greenberg Traurig LLP in San Francisco, where he was a shareholder. He specializes in technology litigation and class-action defense.

Bodian previously worked with Nadel at O’Sullivan, Graev & Karabell LLP, a New York-based corporate boutique that O’Melveny & Myers LLP acquired in 2002.

“Bob’s a big part of the reason why I joined the firm,” Nadel said. “The opportunity to work in the firm with the guy who’s running the place is unique.”

Nadel said he’s looking forward to being heavily involved in the lateral recruitment process, an opportunity not always afforded to a firm’s younger members.

Churchill and Nadel are the first lateral members to join in San Francisco since the office opened.

The firm previously set up shop in Palo Alto and San Diego as part of a push in California in 2006.

Its San Diego office now counts nearly 40 lawyers, but the firm shuttered its Palo Alto office earlier this year. A couple of that office’s lawyers, corporate member Braden L. Berg and real estate member Gabriel J. Schnitzler, moved to the new San Francisco office.

Churchill said legal recruiter Larry Watanabe approached him about the move and brokered it. Nadel did not use a recruiter.