Press Release March 14, 2018

Alston & Bird Expands in Los Angeles with Four-Lawyer Litigation Team

Alston & Bird has expanded its litigation capabilities with the addition of four attorneys, including two partners, in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Joining Alston & Bird are partners Jeffrey Rosenfeld and Grant Alexander, along with counsel Rachel Lowe and senior associate Sean Crain. All arrive from DLA Piper.

“Jeff and his team have built a vibrant, formidable commercial litigation practice with an emphasis on class actions,” said Richard Hays, Alston & Bird managing partner. “Together, they bring decades of litigation and trial experience and underscore our focus of bringing in top talent to meet the growing needs of our clients both in Los Angeles and throughout the West Coast and nationally.”

The new attorneys enjoy an accomplished reputation for providing respected and effective counsel in complex, high-stakes litigation, including commercial litigation, consumer class actions, and other sophisticated mass torts.

Rosenfeld, who founded DLA’s Los Angeles office in 2001 and has served as the office managing partner and head of the office’s litigation practice, is a business litigator who focuses his practice on trial and appellate litigation, with an emphasis on class action and other complex commercial litigation. He has extensive experience defending a wide variety of class actions and high-stakes litigation in both state and federal court and across multiple industries, including manufacturing, food and beverage, hospitality, finance, and Internet and software. He regularly counsels and represents clients in corporate governance and partnership disputes, as well as in claims experienced by individual and corporate stakeholders.

Alexander represents a varied client base in class action and complex commercial lawsuits and general employment litigation involving discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination. He also handles trade secrets cases, contractual disputes, and claims under the California Business & Professions Code and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Active in the community, he serves as a board member of the Loyola Law School’s Disability Rights Legal Center.

“California is well known for disproportionate volumes of litigation and large verdicts and serves as a bellwether for the rest of the country,” said Kristy Brown, Alston & Bird partner and co-leader of the firm’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group. “Jeff and his colleagues have an impressive record of success in high-stakes disputes and are exceptionally well positioned to represent clients in a broad array of matters, including claims involving the Private Attorneys General Act, Prop 65, food and beverage litigation, the California Environmental Quality Act, and many other issues.”

Also joining from DLA are counsel Rachel Lowe and senior associate Sean Crain.

Lowe represents clients in complex commercial disputes in the food and beverage, insurance, real estate, and entertainment industries, among others. She has successfully defended clients in numerous consumer class actions. One of two former DLA associates nationwide who served on the firm’s Policy Committee, she is a past member of DLA’s Los Angeles Pro Bono Committee and is actively involved in pro bono matters, including recently the U.S. Department of Justice’s Clemency Project.

Crain focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, representing clients in such industries as media, sports and entertainment, food and beverage, manufacturing. He has successfully defended single-plaintiff and putative class action matters, including those alleging violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California Unfair Competition Law, and California False Advertising Law.

“We are wholly committed to growing our Los Angeles office and deepening high-performing practices to meet the growing demand of current and new clients,” said Thomas Wingard, partner in charge of Alston & Bird’s Los Angeles office. “Jeff and his team bring additional litigation firepower to our clients and add to our bench strength of leading litigators both in Los Angeles and in our other offices in San Francisco and in Silicon Valley.”

The team’s arrival continues the momentum behind Alston & Bird’s expansion of its West Coast litigation practice. In March 2017, the firm extended its California presence by opening a new office in San Francisco and expanding in Los Angeles with nine new litigation attorneys, including partners Bo Phillips and Michael Agoglia, who The American Lawyer named among the top 25 laterals of 2017. Also in March 2017, the firm added construction and government contracts partner in Los Angeles. The hiring continued with the addition of Los Angeles environmental partner Jeffrey Dintzer and counsel Matthew Wickersham in January 2018.
Media Contact
Alex Wolfe
Communications Director

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