September 2, 2021
New York, NY (September 2, 2021) --- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced the opening of its Los Angeles office. The office will be launched by Alan Epstein, Michele Mulrooney and Alex Weingarten, who have joined Willkie as partners.
Alan is a prominent transactions attorney, Michele is a leading estate planning practitioner for high-net-worth individuals, and Alex is a nationally recognized entertainment and business litigator. Willkie expects to announce additional lawyers who will be based in the new Los Angeles office in the coming weeks.
Together, they bring market-leading experience representing major companies, investors and individual clients in corporate and M&A transactions; private wealth, estates and trusts; and litigation. All were previously partners at Venable LLP.
“Continuing to build out our West Coast presence has been a strategic focus of Willkie, and we are thrilled to welcome Alan, Michele and Alex to launch our Los Angeles office,” said Willkie Chairman Thomas Cerabino. “Our opening here follows our establishment of offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto over the last three years.”
He continued: “Los Angeles is a diverse and vibrant business center and several of our existing clients are based in or near LA, or have significant operations there. Alan, Michele and Alex know the market, have key relationships, and are a great fit for our collaborative and entrepreneurial culture. They bring tremendous synergies that will further strengthen our transactional, private client and litigation platforms.”
Alan Epstein represents a vast array of clients in the entertainment and media industry, including independent production companies and studios, content library owners and financiers, high profile talent, producers and influencers, technology companies, influencer-backed consumer product companies, and talent/management companies, both on domestic and international matters. His practice focuses on corporate matters including M&A, joint ventures, financing transactions and executive compensation, and complex tax planning.
Michele Mulrooney focuses her practice on estate planning for high-net-worth individuals and their companies and non-profits. Michele has been recognized by several publications as a top woman lawyer in Los Angeles as well as one of the nation’s leading Trusts & Estates practitioners.
Alex Weingarten has a broad commercial litigation practice representing clients in areas of entertainment, probate, restructuring and business litigation. Alex has been recognized by multiple publications, including as one of the top 50 trial lawyers in Los Angeles, one of the top entertainment litigators in the nation, and one of the 500 most influential business leaders in the region.
“We’ve admired Willkie’s expansion of its national platform in recent years, particularly on the West Coast, and are honored to launch its Los Angeles office,” said Alan Epstein. “Willkie’s best-in-class corporate platform, and its deep bench and supporting infrastructure, will allow me to expand my practice and better serve clients throughout the corporate lifecycle.”
Michele Mulrooney commented: “Willkie’s private client practice is well respected in the community of estate planning. I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues across the firm in providing coast-to-coast service to private family offices across the range of their needs. This was an opportunity we could not pass up.”
“We could not be more excited to join the Willkie family or more grateful to serve as the foundation of what we know will be an incredibly vibrant and dynamic office in Los Angeles,” explained Alex Weingarten. “Willkie’s reputation as a national litigation powerhouse is well known. I look forward to picking juries and trying cases with my new colleagues.”
Willkie’s Los Angeles announcement follows successful office openings in Chicago in 2020, and in San Francisco and Palo Alto in 2019 and 2018, respectively.
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Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm of approximately 850 attorneys with offices in Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rome, San Francisco and Washington. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue.
Tel: 212.728.8000.
