Chicago Associate Carlos Marin has been named to Just The Beginning – A Pipeline Organization’s (JTB) 5 Under 40, demonstrating his personal and professional commitment to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal field. This commitment is central to JTB’s mission to encourage students of color and from other underrepresented groups to pursue career and leadership opportunities in the law. Marin will be honored at JTB’s 2023 Light the Spark Celebration on October 12.

Marin, a member of Locke Lord’s Litigation Practice Group, focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts. As a native Spanish speaker who grew up in Latin America, he is also a member of the Firm’s Latin America Practice Group. Marin has broad experience in the areas of consumer finance, health care, class actions, mass torts, products liability and financial litigation. He participates in all aspects of litigation, including pre-trial motions, discovery, depositions, expert motion practice, summary judgment, trials and appeals.

August 17, 2023 – Locke Lord is pleased to announce 173 lawyers from 15 U.S. offices have been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, and 39 lawyers from 10 offices were recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch. In addition, five of the Firm’s lawyers were recognized under the special designation of Lawyer of the Year, an honor earned by just one lawyer in each practice area and metropolitan area.

Lawyer of the Year Recipients:

The full list of Locke Lord lawyers listed in the 2024 editions of The Best Lawyers in America®and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch follows below.

Atlanta

  • Brian T. Casey – Insurance Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Reinsurance Law
  • Bryan G. Harrison – Litigation – Intellectual Property
  • Noah J. Mason – Ones to Watch: Commercial Litigation, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants

Austin

Boston

Chicago

Cincinnati

Dallas

Hartford

Houston

Los Angeles

  • Alfred M. Clark – Real Estate Law
  • Nina Huerta – Litigation – Labor and Employment
  • David S. Kupetz – Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
  • William C. Mullen – Ones to Watch: Commercial Litigation, Entertainment and Sports Law, Litigation – Labor and Employment
  • Jonevin Sabado – Ones to Watch: Labor and Employment Law – Management
  • William B. Ticknor II – Real Estate Law

New Orleans

New York

  • Andrew Braunstein – Ones to Watch: Commercial Litigation
  • Rob Evans – Securities / Capital Markets Law
  • Alan J. Levin – Insurance Law, Reinsurance Law
  • Eric C. Strain – Product Liability Litigation – Defendants
  • Stephanie Wickouski – Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law

Newark

Providence

Stamford

Washington, D.C.

West Palm Beach

  • Steven J. Brotman – Ones to Watch: Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Litigation – Banking and Finance, Litigation – Bankruptcy
  • Thomas J. Cunningham – Commercial Litigation
  • Richard J. Miller – Public Finance Law

 

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About Locke Lord LLP
Locke Lord is a full-service law firm with global reach and 20 offices designed to meet clients’ needs in the United States and around the world. The Firm has a history that spans more than 135 years and is a leader in the middle market arena. Locke Lord focuses on providing the highest levels of commitment, quality and service to clients across its five Key Sectors: Energy and Infrastructure; Finance and Financial Services; Insurance and Reinsurance; Pharmaceutical; and Private Equity. In addition, the Firm advises clients across a broad spectrum of other industries, including fund formation, venture capital, health care, public finance, real estate, technology, cybersecurity and white collar, while providing a wealth of experience through its complex litigation, intellectual property, tax, regulatory and transactional teams.

Los Angeles Partner Amin Al-Sarraf, Head of Locke Lord’s Entertainment Industry Group, was named to the 2023 Benchmark Litigation 40 & Under List, the guide recognizing the nation’s most notable up and coming litigation attorneys in the United States. Honorees were selected based on a combination of their recent casework, peer review and client feedback.

Al-Sarraf regularly represents large corporations, financial institutions, entertainment studios, talent agencies, investment funds, small businesses, government agencies and individuals in a wide variety of civil disputes and complex litigation, including employment, commercial and entertainment matters.

View the full list of honorees.

Locke Lord Dallas Partner Paul Coggins, Co-Chair of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group, has been elected President of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA) Foundation. Coggins, who is a Past President of the NAFUSA, was U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1993 to 2001.

Coggins twice served on the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Council and, in 1998, became its Vice Chair. As U.S. Attorney (appointed by President Clinton), he prosecuted the nation’s first “three strikes” case in Texas and some of the earliest cybercrime cases in the United States. He also prosecuted one of the most complex cases ever brought under the federal Economic Espionage Act, stamped out one of the nation’s largest immigrant smuggling rings and built one of the nation’s first health care and fraud task forces.

Coggins focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense and has represented numerous Fortune 500 clients in high-stakes litigation before federal courts and the SEC. He also has conducted internal investigations involving alleged tax, fraud and securities violations. In addition, he develops compliance and ethics programs for corporations and other business entities. Coggins is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

The NAFUSA Foundation is dedicated to supporting the mission of the Offices of the U.S. Attorneys. As part of the NAFUSA Foundation Intern Scholarship program, scholarships are awarded to unpaid law student interns who have performed outstanding work while interning at U.S. Attorney’s Offices and in the Department of Justice.

Locke Lord has been recognized in two practice areas in The Legal 500 United States 2023: Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas and Renewable Energy/Alternative Power. In addition to these practice area rankings, 10 lawyers were recognized for their individual achievements.

Five Locke Lord lawyers were recognized for their achievements in Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas, including: Co-Chairs of the Firm’s Energy Practice Group Bill Swanstrom and Terry Radney, Houston Partner Hunter Summerford and Dallas Partner Henry Benton.

Five of the Firm’s lawyers were recommended in the Renewable/Alternative Power category, including: Chair of the Firm’s Renewable Energy Section Ben Cowan, New York Partners Mike Malfettone and Jeffrey Escobar and Washington, D.C., Partner Emily Huggins Jones.

The Legal 500 is an independent guide, and firms and individuals are recommended purely on merit.

Boston’s Glenn Pudelka, Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s Trademark, Copyright & Advertising Practice Group, has been selected as one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 2023 Go To Intellectual Property Lawyers, recognizing top lawyers in the Massachusetts legal community with a long history of success.

Pudelka represents individuals and companies in the publishing/entertainment, digital media, software, internet, content and technology fields as well as numerous colleges and universities. He has extensive experience in the area of copyright, trademark and privacy. Pudelka handles various content licensing, software, distribution and commercial agreements, as well as website terms and privacy policies (including CCPA and GDPR compliance). He counsels clients on various intellectual property issues and policies, including matters regarding artificial intelligence and generative AI. Pudelka is Vice Chair of the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s Copyright Law and Related Rights Committee, a Past President of The Copyright Society and is also a current member of the International Trademark Association’s Copyright Committee.

Read the full Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly announcement.

Rachel Fitzgerald, a Partner in Locke Lord’s Houston office, has been recognized by Law360 as a 2023 Rising Star in the Energy category. The annual list recognizes attorneys under the age of 40 “whose legal accomplishments belie their age.” Of the more than 1,300 submissions, 183 winners were selected based on their career accomplishments in their respective disciplines with only six being chosen for the Energy practice area.

Fitzgerald practices corporate law, focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, ‎corporate restructurings, joint ventures and matters related to corporate governance and ‎compliance. She has a particular focus in energy — including midstream, oilfield services, ‎renewables and storage facilities — insurance and media. ‎She has represented clients in a wide range of transaction valuations, ranging from $1 million to in excess of $3 billion.

Read Rachel’s full Law360 profile and read the full 2023 Rising Stars list.

Nicholas O’Conner, a Partner in Locke Lord’s Chicago office, was featured and pictured by Chicago Lawyer discussing his mentorship through Legal Prep Charter Academy, a free, open-enrollment public high school in the West Garfield Park neighborhood of ‎Chicago‎, and provides advice about pursuing a legal career. O’Conner, who has coached student mock trial teams at Legal Prep Charter Academy since 2017, has dedicated himself to working with students to help them gain perspective and nurture their interests for becoming legal professionals.

“Being a Chicago native, it’s really important to me that we reach out to the young people in this city and help them feel empowered to go out and take advantage of all the opportunities that come before them,” O’Conner said. “Even for those who may not see themselves as attorneys, the skills learned at Legal Prep and during the mock trial program will stay with the students long after graduation.”

Read the full Chicago Lawyer article (subscription may be required).

Nicholas O’Conner, a Partner in Locke Lord’s Chicago office, has been selected as a 2023 Cook County Bar Association Next Generation honoree. The award recognizes the next generation of powerhouse Black attorneys who have practiced for at least five years and are 40 years old or younger, or those attorneys who are over 40 years of age but have practiced law for less than 10 years. Honorees will be recognized on June 17 during the Future Is US Leadership Conference at the Next Generation Awards Breakfast.

As a member of Locke Lord’s Business Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group, O’Conner concentrates his practice on business, financial services and aviation litigation. O’Conner frequently defends companies in litigation involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Truth in Lending Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and state consumer fraud and unfair or deceptive business practices statutes. O’Conner is the Captain of the Firm’s Legal Prep Charter Academy’s Mock Trial Team. He was selected for the 2021 class of Leadership Greater Chicago’s Signature Fellows Program, and he also is a past recipient of Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization’s 5 Under 40 Award.

Locke Lord’s Federal Public Law and Policy Practice Group, Chaired by Washington, D.C., Partner Jason Zanetti, ranked as one of Bloomberg Government’s 2022 Top-Performing Lobbying Firms by revenue.

Locke Lord’s Public Law and Policy Practice Group provides a full array of legislative, regulatory and legal services. Its professionals form a unique and diverse public law and policy team with extensive political contacts at every level of government and knowledge of how public processes work. The group’s issue areas of measured experience include health care, hospitality, gaming, high technology, financial services, international relations, energy, natural resources, judiciary, education, appropriations and political law. The Firm’s team works closely with senior business executives across a diverse group of companies to advance their respective policy and political objectives in Washington.