"California is a very significant legal market, and we are proud that so many outstanding lawyers have chosen to join our effort to continue to provide global legal services in the California market," said Joe Sims, the Jones Day partner responsible for coordinating the firm's activities in California. "In addition to continuing to see our associates develop to become productive partners, we are constantly attracting talented lawyers who recognize that Jones Day offers some unique opportunities to practice at a high level in an extremely collegial environment. We fully expect this growth to continue, and likely accelerate. We cannot have too many talented lawyers, and there are obviously many in California that are not yet part of Jones Day."

In Northern California, the firm announced this month that James Olson and Randall B. Schai joined as partners in Jones Day's San Francisco office. Messrs. Olson and Schai both come to Jones Day from Heller, Ehrman and add additional experience in mergers and acquisitions, bank lending, debt financing for leveraged transactions, alternative debt/equity public and private structures, fund formation, and private wealth funds advice – to Jones Day's growing West Coast transactional capability. Jones Day's Northern California practice has expanded rapidly from its inception in Silicon Valley more than six years ago with only two lawyers. The firm opened its San Francisco office two years later, and together these offices have grown to more than 100 lawyers. Jones Day has a significant technology focus in Silicon Valley (consisting of IP and Securities litigation and all aspects of corporate practice – M&A, capital markets, private equity, banking & finance), and a well-known litigation and growing transactional focus in San Francisco. These two Bay Area offices are fully integrated and work closely together to serve the needs of companies large and small, as well as their sources of capital.

In Los Angeles, Jones Day announced in December that Stuart Ogg joined the firm as a partner in the firm’s capital markets practice in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Jones Day, Mr. Ogg spent 12 years as a partner in the Dallas office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He is a seasoned attorney who has counseled major corporate clients on public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities, including the representation of underwriters and issuers in IPOs and high-yield debt offerings. Mr. Ogg also has worked on numerous mergers and acquisitions involving both public and private companies, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, private equity investments, and tender offers. He also counsels clients on matters of general securities law and corporate governance.

In Irvine, after landing a trio of partners from Pillsbury Winthrop in May of last year -- veteran litigators Richard S. Ruben, Ralph H. Blakeney and Darren K. Cottriel -- the firm announced that Eric Landau and Shawn Harpen have joined as partners from McDermott, Will and Emery. Mr. Landau and Ms. Harpen practice primarily in the area of securities and shareholder litigation. Mr. Landau represents public and private companies, accounting firms, and underwriters in shareholder class and derivative actions before federal and state courts throughout the U.S. as a trial attorney, and handles a wide range of corporate governance issues related to acquisitions, proxy fights, financial accounting, financings, public offerings, and executive compensation as a corporate counselor. Ms. Harpen has built a successful practice focused on complex commercial litigation with an emphasis on the defense of directors and officers in securities class and derivative actions. She has assisted public and private companies, officers and directors in matters pending before state and federal courts across the U.S. and shareholder actions involving considerable cross-border work in European and traditional off-shore financial communities.

In San Diego, an office that has grown from one lawyer in 2004 to more than 20 today, Jones Day announced the relocation of Tom Briggs, a transactional intellectual property partner from the firm's Cleveland office. Mr. Briggs’ wealth of experience in technology transactions enables the firm to offer an even fuller array of services to its many pharma and biotech clients in this region. Mr. Briggs’ arrival in San Diego follows the arrival earlier in 2007 of Steve Geise, a litigation partner moving from the Cleveland office, George Howard, a partner in the Labor & Employment practice, from Pillsbury Winthrop, and Nick Pisano, an intellectual property litigator from Luce & Forward.

In addition to these lateral partner additions, Jones Day announced the admission of nine new partners "from the ranks" in California at the end of 2007 -- three in San Francisco, four in Los Angeles, one in Irvine and one in San Diego, focusing on M&A, intellectual property and commercial litigation.

Jones Day is an international law firm with 30 locations in centers of business and finance throughout the world. With more than 2,300 lawyers, including more than 400 in Europe and 200 in Asia, it ranks among the world's largest law firms. Jones Day acts as principal outside counsel to, or provides significant legal representation for, more than half of the Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm has been in California for more than 25 years and has more than 250 lawyers spread across five offices, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego.