February 6, 2013

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Ameera Butt

SAN FRANCISCO – Former federal prosecutor Donald S. Davidson joined Winston & Strawn LLP’s San Francisco office on Tuesday after a lateral jump from Bingham McCutchen LLP.

The addition is intended to bulk up the firm’s West Coast securities litigation practice, according to office managing partner Joan B. Tucker Fife, and to complement additions elsewhere to the firm’s securities practice, such as former Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP partners who joined in New York after that firm went bust.

“Hiring him helps build up that practice geographically so we have more of a balance across the country,” Fife said of Davidson.

‘Hiring him helps build up that practice geographically so we have more of a balance across the country.’ – Joan B. Tucker Fife

A former deputy general counsel of UBS Financial Services Inc., Davidson has represented clients in litigation and in regulatory inquiries involving the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and its predecessors, the Department of Justice and other regulators.

“We have [a] significant number of clients in the financial services arena, and we do a large amount of work for financial service companies, so I think he is going to feel right at home here with the types of practitioners that represent similar clients to his, and we look forward to introducing him to clients with the firm,” Fife said.

She said she also expects Davidson to complement partner Robb C. Adkins, who joined Winston about two years ago and now heads the firm’s white-collar, regulatory defense and investigations practice group from its San Francisco office. “I think they will be a very formidable pair,” Fife said.

The firm’s most recent hires have been in intellectual property litigation, which, along with financial services and securities litigation, are priorities for Winston’s West Coast offices, Fife said. The firm currently boasts 58 attorneys in San Francisco and 114 across California, she said. It added former Dickstein Shapiro LLP intellectual property partner Michael A. Tomasulo in Los Angeles last month.

Legal recruiters Larry Watanabe and Ken Schwartz of Watanabe Nason LLC brokered the Davidson deal. “Winston has a tremendous platform for Don’s practice and expertise,” Watanabe wrote in an email Tuesday.

Eric W. Miller, a Bingham spokesperson, said in an email, “We wish him well.”