San Francisco, CA, March 4, 2003 – Baker & McKenzie announced today the strengthening of its regional and global Information Technology and Communications (IT/C) and Banking & Finance practices with the addition of three prominent lawyers to its San Francisco office.  Partner Gary Shapiro and associate Stuart Pixley join Baker & McKenzie's IT/C Practice Group; and Partner Michael Penner joins Baker & McKenzie's Banking & Finance Practice Group, all from Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP.

 

Shapiro and Pixley will work together within Baker & McKenzie's IT/C practice to represent, high technology, e-commerce, biotechnology and emerging growth companies with an emphasis on corporate partnering transactions, including technology development and licensing, and strategic intellectual property counseling.

 

As a member of Baker & McKenzie's Banking & Finance practice, Penner will focus on financial services and commercial law, emphasizing structured financing, equipment lease financing, commercial real estate financing transactions, asset acquisitions and dispositions, and insolvency counseling.

 

Shapiro, Pixley and Penner join former Brobeck colleagues Shane Byrne and his team of six lawyers who came to Baker & McKenzie's Corporate & Securities practice in mid February.  Byrne, along with Partners Phillip Bush and Jason Kuhns, and associates Matthew Gemello, Lisa Wong, Neal Patel and Laura Russell, focus on joint ventures; mergers and acquisitions; and venture financings and public and private securities offerings for corporations, venture and corporate investors and underwriters. 

 

Commenting on the additions, John Conroy, Baker & McKenzie North American Managing Partner and Chairman of the Firm's Global Banking & Finance Practice Group said, "These leading lawyers represent the latest influx of talent to the partnership, and to our San Francisco/Palo Alto office, complementing the addition of Shane Byrne and his team earlier this month.  Michael's experience will support the Global Banking & Finance practice in the areas of asset-based financing, big-ticket equipment leasing and commercial real estate financing.  We continue to attract lawyers of this caliber as we pursue the growth of our core practices in the Bay Area."

 

Michael Mensik, Partner and Co-Coordinator of the Global IT/C Practice Group welcomed Gary and Stuart to the firm's global information technology law practice.  "We have the top-tier global information technology, outsourcing and communications practice in many major cities around the globe, and it continues to grow even in these challenging times.   Gary and Stuart are welcome additions to this core practice in a key part of the world.  We look forward to having them on our local, national and global teams."

 

"We are very excited about our new colleagues." said John McKenzie, Chair of the Northern California International Business Practice Group.  "Gary and Stuart add a very capable domestic technology component to our international technology and business practice in  the Bay Area."

 

Baker & McKenzie works with Heidrick & Struggles in its recruiting efforts.

 

Partner Gary Shapiro began his practice at Chandler, Wood, Harrington & Maffley in 1981, and moved to Steefel, Levitt & Weiss in 1983.  He served as Senior Counsel at Bank of America from 1985- 1999, and then joined Brobeck's Business & Technology practice group as Of Counsel, becoming a partner in 2001.   Shapiro graduated cum laude from Brandeis University in 1973 and received his law degree from Hastings College of Law in 1981. 

 

Associate Stuart Pixley began his practice with the New York office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in 1997 and joined Brobeck's Business & Technology practice group in 1999.  Pixley graduated with honors from Pitzer College in 1990 and received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1997.

 

Partner Michael Penner began his practice in 1990 at Vinson & Elkins in Texas before joining Brobeck's Commerce and Finance practice group in San Francisco in 1994, becoming Senior Counsel in 2000.  He is a 1986 graduate of the University of California, Berkley, and received his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990.