Friday, April 13, 2007
Page 3
Sheppard Mullin Elects Guy Halgren to Third Term as Chairman of Firm
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Guy N. Halgren has been reelected to a third term as chairman of the Los Angeles-based firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton.
Halgren, who was nominated by the firm’s executive committee and selected by its partners Monday, told the MetNews he wanted to continue leading Sheppard Mullin along the same trend of growth it has experienced over the last six years. During his first two three-year terms, he noted, the firm has expanded from four to nine offices, has opened offices on both coasts of the U.S. as well as Shanghai, and has increased its number of attorneys by 40 percent.
A big part of local growth was the Century City office, which opened in 2003 and houses the firm’s entertainment practice, Halgren said, adding that the corporate mergers and acquisitions and litigation practice groups in the firm’s now 80-year-old flagship downtown Los Angeles office has been healthy and steadily growing.
“We’ll probably be opening some new international offices in addition to Shanghai in the next two years,” he said.
Joe Coyne, chair of Sheppard Mullin’s growth committee and a member of its executive committee, said in a release that Halgren was expected to continue expanding the firm’s core competencies while preserving its tradition of being “a great place to work.”
Paul Malingagio and Linda Michaelson, who oversee the Los Angeles and Century City offices respectively, both said they were pleased with Halgren’s reelection.
“We’re going to continue to keep the office growing and moving forward,” Malingagio said of the downtown office.
Based in Sheppard Mullin’s San Diego office, Halgren specializes in labor and employment law and has accumulated expertise particularly in handling wage/hour class actions. His experience includes representing and consulting with management concerning wage/hour disputes, class action lawsuits, discrimination and sexual harassment claims, policies and handbooks, collective bargaining and wrongful discharge claims.
The 50-year-old attorney is the immediate past chair of the Wage and Hour Subcommittee of the National Retail Federation’s Committee on Employment Law, a past chair of the San Diego County Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section, and is a past consultant to the Continuing Education for the Bar publication “Handling a Wrongful Termination Action.”
Currently, he is a member of the Labor and Employment Law Sections of the American Bar Association, the California State Bar Association and the San Diego County Bar Association.
Halgren was admitted to the State Bar in 1984 after earning a degree from the UCLA School of Law. Following law school, he externed for U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. in San Diego.
Halgren holds an undergraduate degree from UC Davis.
There are no term limits on Halgren’s position.
Copyright 2007, Metropolitan News Company