Firm Life

Latham & Watkins announced that it plans to open three offices in the Middle East in the first quarter of 2008. The new offices will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Doha, Qatar.

The new partners in Ropes & Gray’s Chicago office: from left to right, Jonathan M. Grandon, James T. Lidbury, and Deborah A. Monson.

Ropes & Gray, the Boston-based firm, has opened a new office in Chicago with three Mayer Brown partners: James T. Lidbury, Jonathan M. Grandon, and Deborah A. Monson, and two partners from the Boston office. The goal for the new office is to build a private-equity practice here. The firm plans to have 100 lawyers in the office within two years.Bell, Boyd & Lloyd has opened an office in San Diego to be the center of its life sciences group.

McGuireWoods announced that it plans to merge with Helms Mulliss & Wicker, a Charlotte, N.C., firm. The merger, which will be effective on March 31, will give the new firm nearly 900 lawyers and offices in 17 cities in the United States, Europe, and Central Asia.

Vedder Price has elected Karen P. Layng chair of the firm’s litigation group.

DLA Piper has formed an alliance with former LaSalle Bank Chairman Norman R. Bobins, who will help lead the expansion of the firm’s presence in the banking and finance industry.

Segal McCambridge has appointed Edward J. McCambridge chair of the toxic tort practice group, Steven Hart chair of the general litigation practice group, and Paul E. Wojcicki chair of the pro bono committee.

Schopf & Weiss selected Kenneth E. Kraus as managing partner, succeeding Bradley P. Nelson, who was managing partner since 2005. Robert J. Palmersheim has been named hiring partner.

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione recently hired Lee A. Rendino as the firm’s new chief financial officer.

Levenfeld Pearlstein has named Mark J. Levin as director of business and marketing. Levin was previously a principal at Akina Corp., a consulting and training firm.

Shefsky & Froelich has named shareholder Ira S. Neiman head of the firm’s trust and estates practice group.

Thomas M. Jones, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery has been named the recipient of the 2008 CICA Distinguished Service Award from the Captive Insurance Companies Association.

Hermine Valizadeh, an associate at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, has been elected to the national board of directors of the Iranian American Bar Association.

Mark D. Pearlstein, a partner at Levenfeld Pearlstein, has received the Institute of Real Estate Management Chicago Chapter’s 2008 Leadership Award. And Bryan I. Schwartz, chairman of Levenfeld Pearlstein, has been elected to the board of directors of the Eleanor Foundation, an organization that provides grants to services that support working women in Chicago who earn less than $30,000 per year and receive no public aid.

Sharon R. Barner, a partner at Foley & Lardner and Jeffrey A. Jones, the owner of Jones and Jones, a general practice firm in Chicago and Orland Park, have been elected to the board of trustees of La Rabida Children’s Hospital.

Dixie Lee Peterson, the deputy general counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, has been elected president of the Women’s Bar Foundation.

Cook County Associate Judge Reginald H. Baker and Holland & Knight partner and Chicago Bar Association President Victor P. Henderson have received the Cook County State’s Attorney’s annual C.F. Stradford Award, which honors distinguished attorneys and judges in the African-American community.

Tomas M. Thompson, an associate at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell received the Eamon Shannon Special Education Award, given in recognition of his commitment to pro bono work.

> Partners

Seyfarth Shaw has invited 17 attorneys to partnership, including four in its Chicago office: Joseph R. Lanser, intellectual property and information technologies; Brian M. Stolzenbach, labor and employment; David L. Streck, labor and employment; and Tyler A. VanLonkhuyzen, business services.

Beermann Swerdlove has named three new partners: Katherine A. Grosh, commercial litigation; Katarinna McBride, estate planning, business consulting, and commercial transactions; and Stefania Pialis, commercial litigation.

Pircher, Nichols & Meeks has promoted Pablo L. Petrozzi, real estate, to partner.

Johnson & Bell has named Andrew J. Kovarik, William D. Serritella, and Terry A. Takash as senior shareholders. Garrett L. Boehm, Jr., Timoth R. Couture, David F. Fanning, and Victor J. Pioli have been named shareholders.

> Moves

To DLA Piper: partners Albert E. Fowerbaugh, Jr., litigation; Andrew R. Gifford, litigation; Randall A. Hack, litigation; Matthew S. Klepper, litigation; Ronald M. Lepinskas, litigation; Timothy W. Brink, financial restructuring and bankruptcy; and Forrest B. Lammiman, financial restructuring and bankruptcy; and of counsel Douglass F. Rohrman, environmental; all are from Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

To McDermott Will & Emery: the firm’s first pro bono and community service counsel, Latonia Haney Keith, from Sidley Austin.

To Hinshaw & Culbertson: associates Albert L. Chollet III, construction and surety law, from Less, Getz & Lipman, in Memphis; Nabil G. Foster, professional liability defense, from Pugh, Jones, Johnson & Quandt; and Keara K. Roethke (Rockford office), business transactions and commercial litigation, from Levenfeld Pearlstein; and new associate Anne C. Couyoumjian, product-liability and personal-injury defense.

To Duane Morris: partners Richard Ruzich and John Maher, from Epstein Becker & Green; and Robert Gould, from Bell, Boyd & Lloyd; all in intellectual property.

To Pedersen & Houpt: new associates Timothy P. Fitzgerald, corporate and business counseling, and Sandeep S. Sood, real estate and financing.

To Lovells: associate Deanna R. Swits, intellectual property, from Kirkland & Ellis.

To Beermann Swerdlove: partners John D’Arco, family law, from Lake, Toback & D’Arco; and Rima Ports, estate planning, business consulting, and commercial transactions, from Ports Law Group; and new associates Jared B. Pinkus, family law; and Jessica L. Winkler, family law and commercial litigation.

To Katten Muchin Rosenman: partner Peter Zura, intellectual property, from Bell, Boyd & Lloyd.

To Greenberg Traurig: shareholder Daniel Rubinstein, litigation and white-collar criminal defense, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

To Romanucci & Blandin: associate David J. Vander Ploeg, civil trial matters, from William G. Pintas & Associates.

To Ladden & Allen: associate Todd M. Glassman, family law, from Braun & Edwards.

To Steptoe & Johnson: partner Stanley A. Schlitter, intellectual property, from Jenner & Block.

To Ungaretti & Harris: partner Ethan E. Trull, litigation, from Cardinal Health, Inc., where he served as vice president and associate general counsel; and associates Amy M. Gardner, commercial litigation and intellectual property, from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Abosede Odunsi, civil litigation, from Swanson, Martin & Bell.

To Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard: new associate Marien Zalduondo, personal injury, medical malpractice, and product liability.

To Miller Canfield: senior counsel Cara M. Houck, civil litigation and life sciences, from McGuireWoods.

To Querrey & Harrow: of counsel Jacob A. Miller, governmental relations, from the Office of the Governor of Illinois, where he was associate general counsel.

To Michael Best & Friedrich partner Marshall J. Schmitt, intellectual property litigation, from Jenner & Block.

To Johnson & Bell: new associates Michael J. Lizzadro, Tatum H. Lytle, Bradley D. Price, Reiko Satoh, James V. Tomaska, Justin H. Volmert, and Timothy B. Young.

To Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro: partner Lee Grossman, patent and trade secret litigation, from Grossman Law Office.

To Vedder Price: shareholder Danielle Meltzer Cassel, transactional real estate, land use, and public incentives law, from DLA Piper.

To Winston & Strawn: of counsel Thomas L. Kirsch II, litigation, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern Indiana.

To Barnes & Thornburg: partner Gerald O. Sweeney Jr., litigation and intellectual property, from Howrey.

To Tenney & Bentley: member Sigmund J. Chavis, estate and succession planning, from Shaheen, Novoselsky, Staat, Filipowski & Eccleston; and associate Timothy R. Nelson from The Law Offices of Stephens & Schrauth.

Howard T. Trafman of Meachum & Trafman has transferred from the firm’s Chicago office to its office in Phoenix.

P. Andre Katz and Daniel R. Stefani, both formerly partners at Berger Schatz, announced the launch of their new matrimonial law firm, Katz & Stefani, with offices in Chicago and Bannockburn.

Terry John Malik, a partner at Winston & Strawn, has retired from the firm to become the president of Guerin College Preparatory High School in River Grove.

> Changes

Adeline Geo-Karis, the first woman elected to the Illinois House and Senate, and the first woman to serve in Senate leadership as assistant majority leader, from 1993 to 2003, died Feb. 10, at age 89.

Thomas A. Reynolds Jr., who was managing partner of Winston & Strawn from 1969 to 1989, when the firm grew from 70 lawyers to more than 400, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease on Feb. 14, at age 79.

Marvin J. Glink, a founding partner of Ancel, Glink, died Feb. 7, at age 79.

Elmer W. Johnson, a partner at Jenner & Block , a former managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis, and also the former general counsel of General Motors Corp., died Feb. 19, at age 75, after a long battle with cancer.

Mitchell A. Mars, the chief of the organized crime section of the U.S. attorney’s office, died Feb. 19, of lung cancer, at age 55. Mars led the prosecution of organized crime figures in the recent Family Secrets trial.

John W. Hough, an attorney whose legal career spanned 50 years, died Feb. 5, at age 80.

Charles E. Murphy, a labor relations lawyer who practiced in Chicago for more than 30 years, died Feb. 18, due to cancer-related complications, at age 65.