February 26, 2013

LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL

By Ameera Butt

SAN FRANCISCO & LOS ANGELES – Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP added two lateral partners this week in its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. David A. Randall, formerly of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, joined the intellectual property practice group in Los Angeles. In San Francisco, Robert J. Guite jumped to Sheppard Mullin’s business trial practice group. He was formerly with Squire Sanders.

Both attorneys started with the firm on Monday.

Sheppard Mullin has been rapidly expanding its intellectual property practice on the West Coast and across the firm, said legal recruiter Larry Watanabe, whose firm, Watanabe Nason LLC, facilitated Guite’s move .

Sheppard Mullin has been rapidly expanding its intellectual property practice on the West Coast and across the firm.

“David’s addition gives them another proven player with deep technical expertise,” Watanabe said via email Monday, and “Rob Guite’s addition further solidifies the firm’s strong litigation in San Francisco and adds depth to their [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] litigation practice.”

Randall said one of the factors that attracted him to Sheppard Mullin was the firm’s strong Asia practice and its offices in Shanghai, Beijing and South Korea.
“In particular I’ve always been interested in Asia,” he said. “I have clients in Asia, both China and Taiwan as well as Japan, and I have strong contacts with potential clients in South Korea.”

Guite said it was Sheppard’s “robust litigation practice” that attracted him to the firm.

“I do commercial litigation. I do ERISA. I do a broad mix of things, and the firm really has talent and expertise, really deep and broad in a way I thought I could contribute to and help my clients,” Guite said.

Fred R. Puglisi, co-chair of the firm’s business trial group, said Guite’s addition will add “depth” to the firm’s ERISA litigation practice.

“He is a great lawyer,” Puglisi said, pointing to Guite’s “highest client service standard, which is important and is a great fit for us.”

Randall also joins former partners from the now-defunct Los Angeles firm Lyon & Lyon LLP who now practice at Sheppard Mullin. One, Laura M. Burson, joined as a partner in January from Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

With Randall and Burson’s recent lateral moves, there are nine intellectual property partners in the Los Angeles practice, according to Stephen S. Korniczky, co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property practice in Del Mar. Korniczky worked alongside Randall as an associate at Lyon & Lyon in the early 1990s, he said.

“He’s got a very broad technology background that allows him to counsel clients in a number of industries in clean energies, electronics, computer science and so forth,” Korniczky said of Randall. “In his practice he’s actually drafted patents that have been enforced in litigation, and so he knows how to draft very strong patents and at the same time he knows how to litigate and enforce them.”