The firm is opening an office in Los Angeles and bringing a raft of senior lawyers on board in the state.

Baker McKenzie, the international law firm, has added five partners to its teams in California, a move that includes the launch of a new office in Los Angeles.

Mark Goodman and Ethan Miller will operate out of the firm's San Francisco / Palo Alto office, while Robin Samuel, Barry Thompson and Joe Ward will become founding partners of its new Los Angeles office. All five joined from another "international law firm", it said, without disclosing its name.

Goodman was an equity partner in Hogan's San Francisco office, where he handled complex, multidistrict litigation, class actions, and tried cases in state and federal courts across the US for both domestic and international clients.

Robin Samuel will reside in Los Angeles. He was an equity partner in Hogan Lovell’s Los Angeles office, and led the firm's California Labor & Employment practice. Robin handles all aspects of Californian and federal employment law, helping clients with complex wage and hour, discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, breach of contract, M&A, employee raiding, and trade secret theft litigation, investigations and transactions.

Barry Thompson will reside in Los Angeles. He was an equity partner in Hogan's Los Angeles office, where he litigated and tried complex commercial, class action, and product liability cases in federal and state courts, with a particular focus on life sciences matters. Serving as national, regional, and local counsel, he defended manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices in many high-profile litigations. He also served as national trial counsel in, among other cases, prominent life sciences mass torts and catastrophic injury cases, and regularly tries cases to verdict.  

Ethan Miller will reside in San Francisco/Palo Alto. He focuses on complex commercial litigation disputes, including cross-border trade secrets, unfair competition, employment matters (including discrimination and wrongful termination), multi-jurisdictional products liability, consumer products, class action, and complex insurance coverage and bad faith claims.

James ("Joe") Ward will reside in Los Angeles. Joe has handled a broad range of high-stakes litigation, including representing large electrical utilities in state and federal courts across the country, and in private mediation and arbitration proceedings. He has defended national and multinational companies in individual and class action lawsuits over the use of pharmaceuticals, tobacco, off-road vehicles, metering equipment, cosmetics, and many other consumer products.