Wilson Sonsini Adds Five Ex-Munger Tolles Litigators in L.A.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has hired five partners in its litigation department, bringing on board a group of former Munger, Tolles & Olson litigators in Los Angeles.

The partners making the move are Luis Li, Matthew Macdonald, Fred Rowley, Mark Yohalem, and Eric Tuttle.

Li is a prominent Southern California trial lawyer who currently represents Vanessa Bryant in a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and its Sherriff’s department, alleging officers who responded to the helicopter crash that killed her husband, basketball player Kobe Bryant, took and shared personal photos of the scene. He has also represented the University of California in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal.

The hires represent a major move in Wilson Sonsini’s efforts to bulk up its national litigation practice, which currently features more than 200 lawyers across the firm. Wilson Sonsini saw a boom in work in 2020 that drove its revenue up nearly 18% to $1.1 billion and its profit per equity partner up more than 26% to more than $3 million, according to AmLaw data.

The firm has hired three litigation partners in the past three months. Susan Kay Leader, a Los Angeles-based partner, joined from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Intellectual property litigator Amy Candido joined in San Francisco from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Jordan Jaffe, another San Francisco partner, also joined from Quinn Emanuel, where he’d led the firm’s autonomous vehicle practice.

“Even before the arrival of this group, our national litigation practice had an undeniable momentum about it,” Caz Hashemi, Wilson Sonsini’s head of litigation, said in a statement. “They have taken that to another level, deepening the trial and appellate skills that make us the counsel of choice for the most complex, high-value, and legally challenging pieces of litigation.”

Rowley, a former federal prosecutor, focuses on appellate cases, arguing more than 50 appeals and appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yohalem served as deputy chief of appeals for the Central District of California, and has argued more than 40 appeals in federal and state courts.

Macdonald has represented PG&E, MGM Resorts, and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Tuttle, who will join Wilson Sonsini later this month, has a technology focus. He has represented Google and Ericsson in patent cases, and Warner Bros. in a dispute over the accounting for the Lord of the Rings films.

For its part, litigation-heavy Munger Tolles was one of the rare AmLaw 200 firms to experience a dip in revenue in 2020. The firm’s top line came in at $283 million last year, 4% lower than 2019, while its profits per equity partner dipped by 4% to $1.8 million, according to AmLaw data.

“Wilson Sonsini is well known for its innovative spirit, not to mention its success litigating cutting-edge disputes in technology, intellectual property, and other areas,” Rowley said in a statement. “We could not pass up the opportunity to be a part of the growth of this forward-thinking firm.”