SAN FRANCISCO - The law firm Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth opened a Sacramento office yesterday, and announced the hiring of former Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP attorneys Kevin Civale and Gwenn O'Hara to staff it.
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They join the firm as shareholders.
"We've been actively looking at practitioners in both northern and southern California to bolster our practice," Carol Lew, head of Stradling's public finance tax department, said in a phone interview yesterday. "We're trying to continue to bolster our strong Western regional presence."
In 2006, Stradling was the third-biggest bond counsel firm in California, according to Thomson Financial data. Hawkins ranked fifth in that market.
"In many firms, the public finance practice is shrinking in importance or being abandoned. This shift in the marketplace is creating tremendous opportunities for us as we continue to grow," Lew, who is president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, said in a news release.
"With the addition of Kevin and Gwenn, and the opening of the Sacramento office, we are poised to manage an increasing number of deals for both state and local issuers," she said.
Civale, who was a partner at Hawkins, has more than 20 years of experience representing state and local issuers and investment banks, including expertise in large and complicated transactions, including the 2002 California Department of Water Resources power supply revenue bond deal and the 2004 California economic recovery bond deal, two of the largest transactions in municipal finance history.
"The attorneys at Stradling have been long-term friends and colleagues on many transactions, so our transition will be smooth," Civale said in a statement.
He had been with Hawkins since 1984, and became a partner there in 1992.
O'Hara, admitted to the California bar in 2000, has been involved in a wide variety of muni finance transactions and also represented public sector clients in connection with power purchase contracts, franchise agreements, and other contracts, according to her new firm.
"The expertise of our new partners will enhance our tradition of excellence," Bob Whalen, a member of the firm's board of directors and its public finance department, said in a statement. "This is an important move for us, but we view it as only a first step in adding more top-notch public finance lawyers."
Stradling, founded in 1975, is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., with offices in San Francisco, Santa Monica, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, in addition to the new Sacramento office. It has about 100 lawyers with practice areas that also include corporate law, securities, taxation, real estate, and business litigation. (c) 2007 The Bond Buyer and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.bondbuyer.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
