Morrison & Foerster announced the election of 12 lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2019. The class of 2019 includes an equal number of women and men from multiple practice groups across seven offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
“I am delighted to welcome this highly talented and diverse group of lawyers to our partnership,” said Morrison & Foerster chair Larren Nashelsky. “They are gifted lawyers in their respective areas of practice, and each has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to clients, colleagues, and community.”
A release from the firm described the following lawyers who have been elected partners:
• Amanda Aikman, a member of the Litigation Department, and part of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Enforcement, + White Collar Defense, FCPA + Anti-Corruption, and Investigations + White Collar Defense Groups, is based in the New York office. She represents companies and individuals in criminal and civil enforcement matters, conducts internal investigations, and advises companies on global compliance issues. Before joining the firm, Aikman was a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division. As a member of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) unit, Aikman investigated and prosecuted violations of the FCPA as well as other white collar crimes and was involved in a number of significant cases. She was also responsible for researching and preparing the first comprehensive draft of the landmark joint DOJ and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publication, A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Aikman received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University.
• Caitlin Sinclaire Blythe, a member of the Litigation Department, and part of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Enforcement, + White Collar Defense, and Investigations + White Collar Defense Groups, is based in the San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on investigations, white collar defense and commercial litigation. She represents companies, audit committees, and individuals in SEC and DOJ enforcement matters, as well as internal corporate investigations involving accounting and disclosure issues. Blythe also represents corporations and individuals in class actions and other complex commercial litigation matters. Before joining Morrison & Foerster, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Blythe received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
• Andy Campbell, a member of the Corporate Department, is based in the Washington, D.C. office. His practice focuses on representing issuers and underwriters in capital markets transactions and advising public and private companies on a variety of other corporate and securities matters, including strategic transactions, corporate governance matters, and compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the listing standards of securities exchanges. With a particular focus on and experience in the REIT industry, Campbell regularly advises both issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings and other registered and unregistered offerings of common and preferred equity, debt, and convertible debt. He received his J.D. from the University of Alabama and his B.A. from Williams College.
• Dario de Martino, a member of the Corporate Department and co-chair of the Blockchain + Smart Contracts Group, is based in the New York office. His practice focuses on domestic and cross-border corporate transactions, principally in connection with public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and corporate governance matters. de Martino represents a broad array of U.S.-based and international clients, ranging from global corporations to closely held companies, most of which are active in the following industries: technology, including blockchain and cryptocurrencies, financial services, and healthcare. He regularly counsels clients in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, including with respect to private equity investments in companies developing blockchain-enabled technologies and token offerings (also known as ICOs). de Martino received his J.D. from Federico II University School of Law and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School.
• Marc-Alain Galeazzi, a member of the Financial Services Group, is based in the New York office. His practice focuses on advising and counseling foreign and domestic banks, financial holding companies, bank holding companies, and other financial institutions on a variety of bank regulatory, Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML), and transactional matters. Galeazzi also has significant experience advising financial institutions on complex regulatory matters, including matters relating to the Bank Holding Company Act, the Bank Merger Act, the Dodd-Frank Act (with regard to the Volcker Rule, living wills, and enhanced prudential standards, among others), applications to federal and state banking regulators for expansion of activities, internal restructuring, and new products, sales, and acquisitions. Galeazzi received his LIC JUR from the University of Fribourg and his LL.M. from Boston University School of Law.
• Annabel Gillham, a member of the Litigation Department, is based in the London office. She manages the London employment department and is part of the firm’s Employment + Labor and Global Privacy + Data Security Groups. Her employment practice covers cross-border employment counseling, executive hiring and firing, strategic employment advice on transactional matters and investigations and employment litigation. Gillham also regularly designs and presents training and legal updates to senior managers and HR executives and has participated in working party UK government consultations (including on the UK gender pay reporting regulations). On the data protection side, Gillham advises multinational organizations on individual rights requests, regulatory investigations and all aspects of GDPR compliance. She has particularly strong experience guiding clients through the new regime governing access to data relating to criminal allegations. Gillham received her G.D.L. and L.P.C. from the University of Law of England & Wales and her B.A. from the University of Bristol.
• Akira Irie, a member of the Intellectual Property Group, is based in the Tokyo office. He has represented clients before U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and the USPTO. He also assists clients in patent litigation before Japanese courts. His litigation experience includes pre-suit analysis, managing discovery and trial strategy, taking and defending depositions, arguing discovery and pre-trial motions, and arguing at Markman hearings. Additionally, he also has experience drafting pre-trial and post-trial briefs, preparing and presenting witnesses for trial testimony, and participating at patent trials before the ITC and U.S. district courts. He is also registered to practice before the USPTO as a patent attorney and has argued in Inter Partes Review proceedings before the USPTO. Irie received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law and his B.A. from Swarthmore College.
• Nicole Johnson, a member of the State + Local Tax Group, is based in the New York office. Her practice focuses on state and local tax controversies at the audit, administrative, and judicial levels, and encompasses tax matters regarding all tax types. Prior to joining the firm, Johnson was a state and local tax manager with one of the big four accounting firms, where she focused on complex state and local tax controversies and planning opportunities. She is a frequent lecturer concerning state and local taxes and has spoken before such organizations as the Council On State Taxation, the Energy Tax Association, the Ohio Tax Conference and the California Tax Policy Conference. In 2018, Johnson was appointed to the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal Advisory Panel. She received her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law and her BSB from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
• Jim Krenn, a member of the Corporate Department, is based in the San Diego office. He counsels private and public companies on a broad range of significant business transactions, from formation through liquidity. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and emerging company counseling. Krenn advises clients on private and public acquisitions on both the buy-side and sell-side across numerous transaction structures, including equity purchases, asset purchases, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures of divisions and subsidiaries, cross-border transactions and auctions. He counsels emerging life science and technology companies in equity financings and general corporate matters and angel, corporate, and venture capital investors in investments in such companies. In addition, Krenn represents public companies on capital markets transactions and reporting matters, and advises boards of directors on corporate governance issues. Krenn represents clients in multiple industries, including biopharmaceutical, artificial intelligence, medical device, e commerce, cybersecurity, software, Internet, social media, semiconductor, unmanned aerial vehicles, agtech, consumer products, finance, cleantech, energy, and action sports. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
• Joyce Liou, a member of the Intellectual Property Group, is based in the San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, domestic and international trademark prosecution, copyright and trademark enforcement, and domain name arbitration. She has litigated trademark, copyright, and design patent infringement cases, as well as proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In addition to litigation, Liou advises clients on complex intellectual property issues such as counterfeit and gray market goods. Her clients come from a wide range of industries and fields, including wireless networking, consumer electronics, computer software, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, plants, and food products. Liou received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
• David Newman, a member of the National Security and Global Risk + Crisis Management Groups, is based in the Washington, D.C. office. Drawing on his experience as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney and his background in government regulation and national security, his practice involves guiding clients through sensitive matters pertaining to national security and global risk and crisis management. He has significant experience advising clients on crisis management, counseling clients on Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) reviews, and conducting internal and government-facing cross-border investigations. Recently named as one of the top “40 under 40” figures in the data law bar around the world by Global Data Review, Newman has been called upon over the past year by CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired Magazine, among others, to provide thought leadership and insights on trending cybersecurity and data privacy issues. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Newman held several key posts at the White House, serving as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to President Barack Obama and on the staff of the National Security Council. Throughout his tenure at the White House, he regularly advised the President and other senior administration officials on a range of complex matters affecting the federal government, overseeing a broad portfolio that spanned national security priorities, crisis response and preparedness planning, new data and technology initiatives, criminal justice reform, and civil rights litigation. Previously, Newman was counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ, where he helped manage the DOJ National Security Division and counseled senior officials at the DOJ and across the government on a wide array of matters. A former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court, Newman received his J.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from Columbia University.
• Dr. Julia Schwalm, a member of the Commercial Litigation practice, is based in the Berlin office. Schwalm represents national and international clients in the resolution of large-scale commercial, often cross-border disputes, with a focus on technology-based disputes. She has represented clients in all aspects of litigation, from pre-litigation strategy through trial to the enforcement of judgments, and settlement negotiations. She has handled cases in a variety of industries, including automotive, aviation, consumer goods, telecommunications, heavy machinery, and banking. She also advises clients on product liability issues, assists them with the risk assessment, and has conducted numerous EU-wide voluntary recalls for her clients. Schwalm received her Dr. iur. from the University of Regensburg.
