Thursday, December 19, 2002
Page 4
San Francisco Firm Carroll Burdick Appoints New Managing Partner
By ALLISON LOMAS, Staff Writer
The partners at Carroll, Burdick & McDonough LLP have appointed San Francisco litigator James Richard Walsh to be the new firm-wide managing partner effective January 1, 2003.
Walsh will succeed Rodney Langford Eshelman, who is now completing a two-year term as managing partner. The incoming managing partner, a self-proclaimed “high-energy guy,” has signed on for a three-year term.
Walsh has been with Carroll Burdick for only two years, but he said that he is not a newcomer to running a law firm. The San Jose-native helped found Walsh, Donovan & Keech in 1984, and was managing partner until lateraling to Carroll Burdick as a partner in mid-2000.
Since joining Carroll Burdick he has been the chair of the firm’s commercial litigation practice group. The graduate of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall school of law has 30 years of experience in business litigation and this year won a $5 million judgment for the founder of the company responsible for the special effects in The Matrix and What Dreams May Come in a breach of contract case.
Walsh said that he will continue the efforts of his predecessor to make the recruitment of partners and associates a top priority. Continued expansion is necessary, Walsh said, in order to keep up with the demand of the firm’s growing client base.
“I hold Jim in the highest regard,” Eshelman said. “His vision, talent and leadership abilities make him the perfect choice to build on the tremendous momentum we have achieved in growing our practices successfully.”
Eshelman, who has been with the firm for 25 years, will continue to focus his practice on insurance coverage, products liability, and environmental and mass tort litigation, after stepping down as managing partner.
Carroll Burdick was founded in 1948 and now has four offices in California with approximately 75 attorneys.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company