August 6, 2013
THE RECORDER
By Julia Love
SAN FRANCISCO – Arent Fox has poached a real estate veteran from Orrick for its newly launched San Francisco office.
Melrose Pritchett III “ whose practice includes acquisitions, dispositions, development and leasing” will join the Washington, D.C.-based firm as a partner Wednesday. Pritchett has had a hand in recent purchases and sales of office buildings, hotels, apartments, industrial buildings and mixed-use properties, according to his Orrick bio. He also represents borrowers and lenders in multi-family loans, securitized loans, foreclosures and workouts, among other lending transactions.
Together with Arent Fox partner Richard Brand, who will soon transfer to the Bay Area from Washington, Pritchett will launch the firm’s San Francisco real estate practice, California managing partner Robert O’Brien said.
O’Brien added that Arent Fox, which planted a flag in San Francisco in June, will benefit from Pritchett’s long history in the city.
“M.J. has been in the market for 30 years,” O’Brien said. “He knows all the key players.”
Pritchett could not immediately be reached for comment. Larry Watanabe and Stacey Pacelli of Watanabe Nason represented Arent Fox in the deal.
Pritchett has called Orrick home since 1983. When Facebook snapped up the 11-building, 57-acre Menlo Park campus that once housed Sun Microsystems Inc. in 2011, Pritchett and others at Orrick represented an unnamed institutional investor and its adviser, RREEF.
“M.J. is a great person and a great lawyer, and we wish him well,” a spokesman for Orrick said.