Patent litigator Gregg Anderson has joined Gordon & Rees LLP as a partner in the firm’s San Diego and Denver offices.
Anderson, who was with Greenberg Traurig, has litigated through trial patent cases involving a range of technologies including oil field mud mixing tanks, computer generated file labels, computer tape storage cabinets, molybdenum compounds used for smoke suppression, as well as a trade secret case relating to a method for using blood albumin as a marker for ischemia. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America in the categories of Intellectual Property and Biotechnology Law, and has been designated a Super Lawyer by Law & Politics Magazine for the past five years.
Anderson received his J.D. from the University of Missouri – Columbia, School of Law and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas.

By Alicia McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO
John O’Brien joined Snell & Wilmer as a partner in its commercial finance group.
He will lead efforts for the firm’s banking and finance work in agriculture law and agriculture transactions. He was previously a partner at Denver-based Kerr Brosseau Bartlett O’Brien.
View the official press release here:

Snell & Wilmer Adds John O’Brien

Brett M. Wendt, business and civil litigation trial attorney, has left his previous firm White & Steele to join Lindquist & Vennum’s Denver office. He will serve as a partner in the firm’s commercial litigation group.

Wendt will concentrate his practice in the areas of commercial, civil, construction, and employment litigation and counseling. An experienced trial lawyer, he has successfully tried numerous commercial and civil cases in both federal and state courts in Florida and Colorado.

Wendt was born in Newport Beach, Calif. He earned his J.D. from the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.

“We are delighted that Brett has joined our Lindquist & Vennum team” said Tiffanie Stasiak, managing partner of Lindquist’s Denver office. “He brings valuable knowledge and experience from both sides of the table, having served as a vice president and general counsel for the nation’s largest underground utility company, in addition to his tenure as an accomplished trial lawyer.”

Wendt said he’s excited about the move. “Lindquist & Vennum has a comprehensive, full-service practice with a national platform, which allows me the ability to offer clients a full array of legal services and further develop my broad-based business, commercial, and employment practice.”

LAW WEEK COLORADO
Blair L. Lockwood has lateraled from Faegre & Benson to Husch Blackwell Sanders’ Denver office as a partner.
Lockwood focuses his practice on securities, mergers & acquisitions and general corporate law. He previously led the Colorado corporate practice of Faegre & Benson LLP. While at Faegre, Lockwood handled sales, acquisitions, spin-offs, mergers, expansions and formations for U.S. and foreign clients.
Lockwood has practiced law for more than 30 years, primarily serving as counsel for various private companies negotiating business transactions. He has also assisted foreign clients with domestic business dealings. Lockwood was listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law, 2009, and was named a Colorado Super Lawyer in the area of Mergers & Acquisitions law, 2006-2007.
Lockwood earned his J.D., with distinction, from the University of Nebraska in 1978, where he was associate editor of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. He earned his B.S., with distinction, from the University of Nebraska in 1975.

Veteran white collar criminal defense lawyers Marci Gilligan and Frederic Winocur joined Denver firm Ridley McGreevy & Weisz as partners on Monday. The two left Kamlet Reichert last week.
Gilligan was part of the defense team of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio in his 2007 trial. She moved to Kamlet Reichert from Richilano & Gilligan last year. Winocur is a veteran defense lawyer who has obtained complete dismissal of charges in more than 100 cases and won defense verdicts in more than 50 jury trials.
As of Wednesday, Ridley McGreevy & Weisz’ Web site listed seven attorneys; Gilligan and Winocur aren’t among them. Kamlet Reichert reported having 33 attorneys in Colorado this year, down from 45 the year before. Among those who departed in 2009 was founding partner Willie Shepherd, who left in May.

Litigator David Zisser joined the trial group of Davis Graham & Stubbs as its of counsel. Zisser’s expertise as a trial lawyer includes internal investigations and white collar crime. He was at Isaacson Rosenbaum.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO
J. Eric Elliff and Carol J. Mihalic have joined Husch Blackwell Sanders’ Denver office. Elliff joined the Litigation department; Mihalic joined the Banking & Finance department.
Elliff was Denver managing partner at Morrison & Foerster since 2002. Mihalic has more than 20 years of experience as a tax attorney and certified public accountant. She has been a tax attorney with Kutak Rock in Denver for eight years. Before that, she provided tax research and planning for AT&T Broadband Corp.
Husch Blackwell Sanders was created in 2008 out of mergers among firms in Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo., and Chicago. The 650-person law firm now has 13 attorneys locally. Its offices are on the 47th floor of Denver’s iconic Wells Fargo building.

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Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — The managing partner of Top 25 Colorado law firm Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti said in a telephone message to Law Week Colorado that he’s sorry to see four litigators, including three partners, leave the firm but emphasized that many of the firm’s litigators are staying.
Michael Westover, the managing partner, also said that Otten Johnson has had only one layoff round, not two, as reported earlier in Law Week. (The earlier story has been corrected.) Additionally, Westover said he believes the firm is doing well “all things considered” when compared to other Denver law firms.
“We’re certainly sorry to see Darrell and the others leave; they are terrific lawyers and good partners,” Westover said in the telephone message, referring to shareholders Darrell Waas, Patricia Campbell and Mikaela Rivera, and to associate Kathryn Hopping. The four announced Monday that they would leave to start their own litigation firm at 17th and Market streets downtown.
Law Week this week noted Otten Johnson’s historical emphasis in real estate law, which been affected harder that other general corporate practice areas.
Westover said he can’t say whether the firm has, in fact, been harder hit than other mid-sized firms.
“I think we’re doing well, all things considered,” he said.
Most Denver law firms have not been immune to the effects of the current global recession, although some of have managed to avoid layoffs.

Clockwise from top left: Kathryn Hopping, Mikaela Rivera, Darrell Waas and Patricia Campbell.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story said the firm has had two layoff rounds. The firm’s managing partner said there has been only one.

By Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Three litigation shareholders and one litigation associate at Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti, a top 25 Colorado law firm, confirmed Monday that they are leaving to form their own firm.
Darrell Waas, one of the departing shareholders, told Law Week Colorado he will be joined by shareholders Patricia Campbell and Mikaela Rivera and by associate Kathryn Hopping.
“We’re going to do commercial litigation, eminent domain and construction litigation, which is what we’ve always done,” Waas said.
Waas said the move was a “normal progression” of careers and opportunities.
“It’s nothing dramatic or specific,” he said.
With an emphasis on commercial real estate law, Otten Johnson has been hit harder by the economic downturn than other Denver law firms. The firm has had one layoff round this year.
After the departures, the firm is still left with a sizable litigation group that includes shareholders Munsey Ayers, David Hutchinson, James Johnson, Thomas Macdonald and Brad Schact, and associates Dimitri Adloff and Bill Kyriagis.
Firm managing partner Mike Westover couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
But Waas denied it was the overall firm’s fortunes that prompted the group’s move.
“No, it’s really not,” he said. “It’s just a point for the four of us to do something on our own. So we decided to take it.”
The four considered going to a different firm. “We just decided that what we wanted to do and the most interesting thing to us is to stick together with a small group and do litigation stuff without the big structure that goes with the larger firms.”
Waas said the four will be moving into offices at the Market Center at 17th and Market streets “in a couple of weeks.”
Asked whether others were being courted to join the group, Waas said only: “Nobody else is leaving.”
Lawyers leaving their firms typically depend on taking their clients with them, and the departing Otten group is no exception.
“All the clients get to make their own decision about where they want to have their litigation,” Waas said. “We’re confident most of the clients will want to have us as their lawyers, but it’s a decision each gets to make, and we recognize that.”

Daniel Dunn has joined Hogan & Hartson as a partner in the Denver office and a member of the firm’s environmental and litigation practice groups, the firm said Tuesday. Dunn previously chaired Holme Roberts & Owens’ environmental and toxic tort practice group and its revenue committee.

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