Sheppard Mullin Announces 2019 Partner Class

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that 15
attorneys have been promoted to partner. The 2019 Partner Class includes
Hector A. Agdeppa (San Diego (Del Mar)), Greg L. Berk (Orange County),
Jennifer Chavez (San Diego), Erinn M. Contreras (San Francisco), John F.
Golembesky (San Diego), Justin J. Hepworth (Orange County), Whitney
Hodges (San Diego), Rachel Tarko Hudson (San Francisco), Benjamin A.
Huffman (Chicago), Siraj Husain (Palo Alto), Alexander Lazar (New York),
Fatema K. Merchant (Washington, D.C.), Jonathan D. Moss (Los Angeles),
Ryan E. Roberts (Washington, D.C.), and Adam Shipley (New York and San
Diego).

Commenting on the newest group of partners, Sheppard Mullin chairman Guy
Halgren said, "We are extremely pleased to welcome this outstanding
group of attorneys to our partner ranks. This class spans practice
groups and offices and they are all committed to upholding the
institutional values of the firm – client service, entrepreneurialism
and collegiality. Sheppard Mullin has experienced 27 years of
year-over-year profitable growth, and this class of partners will play a
critical role in continuing that momentum."

Meet Sheppard Mullin’s 2019 Partner Class:

Hector A. Agdeppa is member of the Intellectual Property practice
group and is based in the San Diego (Del Mar) office. He specializes in
patent preparation and prosecution in the electrical, mechanical and
computer software arts, and is well-versed in the management and
monetization of patent portfolios. He is also experienced in inter
partes review proceedings, tech transfer and licensing, IP due
diligence, opinion/freedom to operate assessments, and provides patent
litigation support for a variety of clients, large and small, covering a
broad range of industries. Previously, Agdeppa worked as a patent
examiner at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in a
telecommunications and data networking art unit. Prior to his USPTO
experience, Agdeppa worked as a software test engineer for Motorola,
Inc. and as a validation engineer for Abbott Laboratories and the
Sverdrup Facilities Group. He received a J.D. from American University
and a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Greg L. Berk leads the firm’s immigration practice and is a
member of the Labor and Employment practice group. Based in the Orange
County office, Berk is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and
Nationality Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal
Specialization. Berk has more than 20 years of experience advising on
all aspects of U.S. immigration matters. He assists employers worldwide
with the hiring and retention of foreign national talent. He also works
with investors on E-2 and EB-5 matters, as well as I-9 and other
immigration compliance matters. Berk is the author of the upcoming book
Immigration Checklists and Practice Pointers – A Desk Reference for
Attorneys and HR Managers. He has also taught immigration law at two
college-level paralegal certification programs in California. He
received a J.D. from Western State University College of Law; an M.B.A.
from George Washington University; and a B.A. from California State
University.

Jennifer Chavez is a member of the Real Estate, Land Use and
Environmental practice group and is based in the San Diego office. Her
practice focuses on land use and development matters, including purchase
and sale transactions and compliance with the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA), the Subdivision Map Act, the Coastal Act and
planning and zoning laws, as well as other general real estate
transactional matters. She has represented developers, landowners and
public agencies in a variety of projects, including large and
small-scale residential, commercial, industrial, mixed-use, and
educational development projects throughout California. She also
represents clients before city councils, county boards of supervisors,
planning commissions and other regulatory bodies to secure land use
entitlements, permits and approvals and also involves defending land use
entitlements in litigation matters before trial and appellate courts. In
addition, Chavez has experience drafting and negotiating agreements with
public agencies and private property owners concerning the use and
development of real property, including development and improvement
agreements, funding and reimbursement agreements, easement agreements
and covenant agreements. She received a J.D., magna cum laude,
from Pepperdine University School of Law and a B.A. from the University
of California, San Diego, where she was on the Provost Honors List.

Erinn M. Contreras is a member of the Business Trial practice
group and is based in the San Francisco office. She is also leader of
the Construction Team. Contreras is a seasoned construction and real
estate attorney who represents owners, developers, general contractors,
subcontractors and construction lenders in all stages of construction
projects. She negotiates and drafts a variety of construction contracts,
including design-build contracts, EPC contracts, professional/consultant
agreements and modified American Institute of Architects (AIA)
contracts. Contreras also has extensive experience litigating
construction-related claims, including construction defect, delay, cost
overruns, mechanic’s liens, quiet title and products liability. In
addition to her construction and real estate practice, she also has
significant employment-related experience, consisting of both employer
counseling and employment litigation. She regularly advises employers on
a wide array of employment issues, including employee terminations, wage
and hour compliance, leaves of absence and requests for accommodation.
She received a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and a
B.A. from Westminster College.

John F. Golembesky is a member of the Corporate practice group
and is based in the San Diego office. He has represented clients in the
healthcare industry for more than 20 years. He regularly represents
healthcare providers, private equity firms and strategic investors in
connection with the purchase and sale of healthcare businesses.
Golembesky also serves as outside general counsel to many large,
multi-specialty medical groups and advises them on complex hospital
affiliations, physician compensation plans, corporate governance, and
operational matters. He is frequently called on to counsel clients about
complex healthcare regulatory and compliance issues, as well as data
security and privacy laws. Golembesky rejoined Sheppard Mullin in 2016,
after having served as the Chief Legal Officer and general counsel for a
Los Angeles-based technology company. He received a J.D. from the
University of Southern California and a B.A., cum laude, from the
University of San Diego.

Justin J. Hepworth is a member of the Tax, Employee Benefits, and
Trusts and Estates practice group and is based in the Orange County
office. His practice encompasses a broad range of state and local tax
matters, from planning, compliance, and transactional matters to
controversy matters in audit and through litigation. He also regularly
advises clients on state and local tax implications of restructurings,
mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs and asset sales. He helps clients with
audit defense, voluntary disclosure, unclaimed property (escheat law),
and other controversy and compliance matters. Hepworth has extensive
experience handling a broad range of multistate issues, including nexus,
sales and use tax exemptions, sourcing and characterization, research
and development credits, unitary business matters, California Prop. 13
change in ownership issues, and residency planning and audits. He
received a J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from
Tulane University and a B.S. from the University of Idaho.

Whitney Hodges is a member of the Real Estate, Land Use and
Natural Resources practice group and is based in the San Diego office.
Her practice focuses on advising and representing major residential,
industrial, commercial and mixed-use development projects, as well as
Native American Indian tribes and renewable energy developers through
all phases of the land use regulatory process and environmental
compliance. Her land use experience includes real estate due diligence
investigations, negotiating and drafting development agreements,
processing land use entitlements, advising tribal governments on
environmental and natural resources law, and appearing before
governmental agencies and commissions. She also represents developers
and management in union negotiations. Hodges serves as general counsel
for the San Diego Humane Society, and she is a registered lobbyist with
the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego, and San Diego Regional
Airport Authority, and the San Diego Port Authority. She received a J.D.
and a B.A., with honors, from the University of Southern California.

Rachel Tarko Hudson is a member of the Intellectual Property
practice group and is based in the San Francisco office. She focuses her
practice on clients in the retail, food and beverage, and technology
sectors. She advises clients conducting advertising campaigns, contests
and sweepstakes, and cause marketing campaigns on substantiation,
clearance, and legal compliance. She also counsels clients on compliance
with e-mail, telephone, and SMS marketing regulations. In addition,
Hudson drafts and negotiates agreements for software, SaaS, technology
services, logistics, marketing, outsourcing, intellectual property
licensing, sourcing and distribution agreements, and other commercial
and transactional matters. In connection with privacy and data security,
Hudson counsels clients on compliance with domestic and international
privacy laws, including in Canada and the EU. She helps clients with
drafting privacy policies and online terms of service for websites and
mobile applications. She also counsels clients experiencing data
security breaches on response, notification and mitigation. She received
a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A., cum laude, from
the University of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin A. Huffman is a member of the Energy, Infrastructure and
Project Finance industry team and the Real Estate, Land Use &
Environmental practice group in the Chicago office. Huffman works with
financing providers, including banks, non-bank lenders, insurance
companies and investment funds as well as financing users, including
project developers, public company borrowers and privately held
borrowers in connection with construction, acquisition and working
capital debt facilities, passive tax and cash equity investments and
secondary-market purchase and sale of debt and equity financing
products, primarily in the renewable energy sector. Huffman received a
J.D., summa cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School and a B.A., cum
laude, from DePauw University.

Siraj Husain is a member of the Intellectual Property practice
group in the Palo Alto office. He focuses his practice on intellectual
property and patent strategy in various technical areas with an emphasis
in software and computer science. He specializes in building and
managing patent portfolios, both in the United States and
internationally. He also represents clients in a variety of domestic and
international business transactions involving intellectual property and
technology rights, including acquiring and licensing intellectual
property. Husain received a J.D. from Loyola Law School and a B.S. from
the University of California, Riverside.

Alexander Lazar is a member of the Corporate practice group in
the New York office. Lazar counsels emerging and established enterprises
on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters in the ecommerce,
internet/mobile, fintech, digital media, life sciences and high
technology industry sectors. He advises entrepreneurs and emerging
companies from inception through exit on entity formation; angel,
venture capital and private equity financings; mergers and acquisitions;
and public securities offerings; as well as corporate governance and
day-to-day corporate matters. He represents mature public and private
companies in their strategic acquisitions and minority investments, with
a focus on acquisitions of, and investments in, venture capital and
private equity-backed technology and life sciences companies. Lazar is
also experienced in advising companies of all stages in complex
commercial transactions, including joint ventures, licensing,
development, distribution, and other collaborative arrangements. He
received a J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Boston
College Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Brown
University.

Fatema K. Merchant is a member of the Government Contracts,
Investigations, and International Trade practice group in the
Washington, D.C. office. She focuses her practice on international trade
and white collar criminal defense work, which includes the U.S.
government’s regulation of international trade, cross-border
transactions and foreign investment. Merchant has extensive experience
conducting internal investigations and responding to U.S. as well as
foreign government investigations and enforcement efforts, compliance
counseling, and transactional due diligence related to anti-corruption,
export controls, economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, and customs
laws and regulations. Merchant regularly assists clients with
developing, implementing, and evaluating effective compliance programs
across a broad spectrum of legal risk areas. She counsels clients across
industries on regulatory filings stemming from cross-border
transactions, including filings with the U.S. State Department and the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). She
received a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and a
B.A. from Al-Jamea-Tus-Saifiyah Arabic Academy.

Jonathan D. Moss is a member of the Business Trial practice group
in the Los Angeles office. His practice entails handling complex
business disputes, class action defense, securities litigation,
shareholder derivative lawsuits, corporate dissolution actions,
entertainment litigation, real estate disputes and defending allegations
of breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. Moss is experienced in all
aspects of the litigation process and in handling alternative dispute
resolution proceedings to successful conclusion. Moss also has
significant appellate experience, including arguing cases before the
California Courts of Appeal and briefing cases in the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court. He received a J.D.
from the University of Southern California and a B.S. from Cornell
University.

Ryan E. Roberts is a member of the Government Contracts,
Investigations, and International Trade practice group in the
Washington, D.C. office. Roberts has counseled clients, ranging from
small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, regarding compliance with the
vast regulations applicable to government contractors. Roberts has
conducted numerous complex investigations, both internal and in response
to allegations made by various enforcement agencies, and represented
government contractors in a broad range of litigation matters, including
litigation under the False Claims Act, bid protests, and
appeals. Roberts received a J.D. from The George Washington University
Law School and a B.A. from the University at Albany, State
University of New York.

Adam Shipley is a member of the Corporate practice group in the
New York and San Diego offices. His practice focuses on representing
clients in a variety of complex transactions in several industries,
including energy, manufacturing, healthcare, industrials, life sciences
and information technology. Shipley has extensive experience negotiating
and managing company sale transactions, having advised many private
equity and strategic buyers and sellers in buyout transactions. He also
helps investors in venture and growth equity transactions. Shipley
received a J.D., cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School and a
B.A., cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.

About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Sheppard Mullin is a full-service Global 100 firm with more than 850
attorneys in 15 offices located in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Since 1927, industry-leading companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to
handle corporate and technology matters, high-stakes litigation and
complex financial transactions. In the U.S., the firm's clients include
more than half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit www.sheppardmullin.com.

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