Alston & Bird Opens Office in San Francisco, Expands in L.A.

Alston & Bird is expanding its wingspan with a new San Francisco office and new hires from Reed Smith in Los Angeles focusing on class actions.

Robert “Bo” Phillips, who led Reed Smith’s class action team, and Michael Agoglia, former Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office managing partner and co-chair of the financial services litigation practice, join Alston as partners in the new San Francisco office.

Teresa Bonder, who heads Alston’s antitrust team, relocated from Atlanta as managing partner of the new San Francisco office south of Market Street in the Financial District.

Partners Jeff Tsai, head of Alston’s state attorneys general team, and Jocelyn Thompson, who handles environmental litigation, also moved to San Francisco.

Moving from Reed Smith are partner Thomas Evans and senior counsel William Higgins, who will continue focusing on class-action defense in San Francisco.

“We have a strong and growing base of global, national and regional clients that will benefit from both our presence in San Francisco and the expansion of our Los Angeles office,” Alston Managing Partner Richard Hays said in a statement.

The San Francisco office “strongly complements” the Silicon Valley office, which focuses on intellectual property litigation, securities litigation and corporate law, Hays said.

Partner Kathy Huang and counsel Sam Park move their class-action defense practices from Reed Smith to Alston’s LA office along with several associates in both cities.

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