Haynes and Boone, LLP announced the promotion to partnership of 14 lawyers from the firm’s Dallas, Houston, New York, Orange County, Richardson and Washington, D.C., offices. This is the largest class of new partners in the firm’s history.
Effective Jan. 1, 2020, the new partners are Adrian Azer, Sharon Baldasare, David Clark, Brad Holdbrook, Gregory Huh, Chris Kang, Phil Kim, Jayun Koo, Rob LeBlanc, Deborah Low, Brent Shultz, Stephanie Sivinski, Simin Sun and Lauren White.
“We are very pleased to promote these deserving lawyers to our partnership ranks,” Managing Partner Tim Powers said. “They represent the future of our firm and embody Haynes and Boone’s strong culture and commitment to client service.”
Adrian Azer
Adrian Azer is a member of the Insurance Recovery Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office. He exclusively represents corporate policyholders in a variety of complex insurance coverage matters. His practice focuses on insurance recovery for mass-tort claims, including sexual-abuse, asbestos, and environmental contamination. In addition, he represents policyholders with respect to cybersecurity breaches, government investigations, and disputes over coverage under director and officer insurance coverage. Adrian has represented public and private companies, non-profit entities and government contractors, and litigated against insurers in state and federal courts across the nation and various arbitration tribunals. He received his bachelor’s degree from Emory University and his juris doctor from the University of Miami School of Law.
Sharon Baldasare
Sharon Baldasare is a member of the Real Estate Practice Group in the New York office. She focuses her practice on commercial leasing/corporate facilities work and has particular experience negotiating a variety of lease transactions on behalf of corporate tenants for office and industrial locations in New York City and throughout the country. In addition to representing two Fortune 500 companies in all aspects of their corporate facilities needs, Sharon also regularly represents a number of other corporate tenants engaged in a wide variety of industries (including news media, publishing and sports and entertainment) with respect to their commercial leasing matters. She received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Dayton and her juris doctor, magna cum laude, from Wake Forest University School of Law.
David Clark
David Clark is a trial attorney who helps clients solve complex business disputes, with a particular focus on licensing disputes and other complex business litigation, as well as areas such as patent litigation and trade secrets. David represents clients in various industries including software, hardware, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and higher education. David’s trial experience most recently includes a trial for a Fortune 500 company concerning software misappropriation, and he also solo-chaired trials to verdicts as a Deputy District Attorney for the Orange County District Attorney’s TAP Program. David has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Southern California Rising Star in 2018 and 2019, and he maintains an active pro bono practice where he has represented clients on matters including employment discrimination and real estate. Before attending the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew J. Guilford in California’s Central District, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and worked at a nationally-recognized research and development company designing microwave circuits and reconfigurable antennas.
Brad Holdbrook
Brad Holdbrook is a member of the Real Estate Practice Group in the Dallas office. His practice involves representing clients engaged in a variety of commercial real estate transactions. He represents REITS, developers, private equity investors, investment funds, individuals, and financial institutions in projects across the nation. Brad’s experience includes acquisitions, dispositions, development, leasing, and real estate finance for industrial, retail, office, multi-family, medical, and mixed-use projects, involving both improved and unimproved properties. Brad was selected for inclusion in Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, from 2016 to 2019. He received his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and his juris doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Gregory Huh
Gregory Huh is a member of the Intellectual Property Practice Group in the Richardson office. He is an experienced trial lawyer that represents clients in patent matters involving complex technologies. He has extensive experience, including regularly representing both petitioners and patent owners in inter partes review (IPR) challenges and other post-grant trials before the USPTO. He has been involved in over 80 such proceedings. In this capacity, he has prepared briefings and argued before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Gregory is also involved in appeals to the Federal Circuit, stemming from USPTO proceedings. He has experience with an array of complex technologies, including, automotive powertrains, control systems, wireless systems, antenna design, computer networking, intrusion detection, computer software, and electrical circuits, among others.
Chris Kang
Chris Kang is a member of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group in the Dallas office. Chris has served as a trusted adviser to numerous companies, financial institutions, private investment funds, investment fund managers, and tax-exempt entities with respect to complex matters involving ERISA, employee benefits, and executive compensation, and is a go-to person for financial institutions and investment funds for practical advice and solutions on ERISA and employee benefits related matters that will help further their business goals. Chris was named a “Best Lawyer Under 40” by the Asian Pacific Interest Section (APIS) of the Texas State Bar in 2016 and has been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, 2016-2019. He received his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and his juris doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Phil Kim
Phil Kim is a member of the firm’s Healthcare Practice Group in the Dallas office. Phil has extensive experience in healthcare law and focuses his practice on transactional and regulatory healthcare matters. He represents various types of providers, ranging from healthcare systems, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician groups (including non-profit health organizations), home health providers, and other healthcare companies on the buy and sell side of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and operational matters. Phil also helps a number of multinational technology companies entering the digital health space with various service and collaboration agreements for their wearable technology. His clients include public medical device, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the investment banks that serve as underwriters involved in the public securities offerings for such healthcare companies. Phil received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his juris doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Jayun Koo
Jayun Koo is a member of the Capital Markets and Securities Practice Group in the New York office. Her practice focuses primarily on securities law and general corporate matters, including representing issuers, underwriters and institutional investors in a variety of public and private securities offerings, SEC reporting and compliance, and corporate governance matters. She works mainly with the firm’s public company clients, both large and small, and private companies seeking to become a public company through an initial public offering, reverse merger or self-filing. Many of these companies are involved in emerging growth technologies in areas such as biotechnology and biopharmaceutical. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her juris doctor from Columbia Law School.
Rob LeBlanc
Rob LeBlanc is a member of the Trademark Practice Group in the Dallas office. Rob is called upon by many of the world’s most recognizable and valuable brands to advise them on the selection, protection, and enforcement of their intellectual property assets. More specifically, he assesses legal risks and crafts and implements legal strategies for global brand management, including by clearing clients’ marks for use and registration, prosecuting and registering those marks both domestically and abroad, evaluating client infringement risks, enforcing their trademark rights against third parties, defending clients against allegations of infringement, and structuring agreements which enable clients to capitalize on their intellectual property. Rob received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, from Tulane University Law School.
Deborah Low
Deborah Low is a member of the Finance Practice Group in the New York office. Her background is in representing foreign and domestic institutional lenders in various forms of secured and unsecured finance transactions including commodities and energy finance, subscription finance, syndicated lending, corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and cross-border export financing loan agreements. Deborah’s practice also includes alternative financing structures (including refinery inventory monetization transactions and private financing) and experience with energy industry form agreements such as ISDA and NAESB. Deborah was named a Rising Star in 2017-2019 by New York Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.
Brent Shultz
Brent Shultz is a member of the Finance Practice Group in the Houston office. He focuses his practice on the representation of financial institutions and borrowers in a wide range of complex loan transactions, with a particular focus on fund finance, private equity finance, leveraged finance, structured finance and other syndicated and bilateral lending transactions. His industry-specific experience includes upstream oil and gas, oilfield services, midstream oil and gas, private equity, energy, banking, financial services, life settlement, construction, maritime, defense, real estate and a range of other industries. He received his bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and his juris doctor from the University of Houston Law Center.
Stephanie Sivinski
Stephanie Sivinski is a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group in the Dallas office. She has obtained trial victories in technologically complex cases ranging from patent-infringement to breach-of-contract matters. Her practice has touched on technology as varied as pharmaceuticals, thermodynamics, computer software, and semiconductor manufacturing. Whether in motion practice before the federal district court or briefing in the courts of appeals, Stephanie can convey the necessary technical detail while focusing on the important legal and factual issues. Clients highly value this skill, particularly in federal court litigation where most decisions are based entirely on the parties’ written submissions. Stephanie has been selected as a Rising Star by Texas Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters 2018-2019. She received her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and her juris doctor from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
Simin Sun
Simin Sun is a partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets and Securities and International Practice Groups in the Houston office. He is an innovative problem-solver with a reputation for providing high-quality legal services and finding creative solutions to resolving difficult problems. Simin’s practice is primarily focused on mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions, technology-based transactions, corporate securities and general corporate matters. He assists clients in connection with complex mergers and acquisitions (both on the buyer and seller side), especially those that contain a technology or international component. He also routinely handles corporate securities matters, particularly those that involve capital raises through public or private equity or debt. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Lauren White
Lauren White is a member of the Investment Management and Tax Practice Groups in the Dallas office. She advises a range of businesses regarding business planning and tax issues from initial formation and operation to disposition. She has experience working with partnerships, limited liability companies, private and publicly held corporations, and individual investors. She assists clients in structuring and forming new business ventures and provides ongoing governance and operational advice to joint ventures, operating companies, investment funds, family offices, and other businesses. Lauren also advises clients on a range of federal and state tax matters. She received her bachelor’s degree from St. Edward's University, her master’s degree from Texas Tech University, and her juris doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law.
Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With more than 575 lawyers, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It also ranks among the nation’s most recommended law firms by general counsel, according to BTI Consulting Group’s “Most Recommended Law Firms 2019” report.