backNEW YORK, December 9, 2025 – King & Spalding has promoted 27 lawyers to partner and 17 to counsel, the firm announced today. The promotions span 13 of the firm’s offices across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
“These lawyers exemplify the excellence, client focus, team orientation, and firm and community citizenship that are King & Spalding’s hallmarks,” said firm chairman Robert D. Hays, Jr. “We are proud to congratulate them on this achievement and look forward to their continuing contributions to the success of our clients and the growth of our firm.”
The following lawyers will be partners effective January 1, 2026:
- Dana Berkowitz (New York) represents healthcare providers in a variety of high-stakes matters, including reimbursement disputes, regulatory proceedings, and commercial litigation and arbitration. She also advises healthcare and life sciences startups. Dana has deep experience in behavioral health and ERISA, and she maintains an active ERISA litigation docket.
- Nathan Buckley (London) is a debt finance lawyer focusing on fund finance. His extensive expertise covers the full spectrum of fund finance products across all asset classes, including NAV/asset backed deals, subscription lines, hybrids, GP financings, co-investment facilities, and preferred equity solutions.
- Zach Burnett (Austin) focuses primarily on mass torts – both federal MDLs and state-level consolidations – and other complex product liability litigations involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. He also has significant experience litigating complex toxic torts arising out of alleged groundwater and other environmental contamination.
- Mandie Cash (Houston) is an experienced trial lawyer with a national practice defending companies in high-stakes mass actions and complex litigation. She represents global technology leaders, energy clients, and product manufacturers, delivering strategic advocacy and favorable results in bet-the-company disputes.
- Aurélie Chazottes (Paris) represents clients at all stages of criminal proceedings, including those involving tax fraud, corruption, misuse of company assets, breach of trust, bankruptcy, money laundering and undeclared work.
- Sam Cortina (Los Angeles) helps tech companies navigate California class action lawsuits, particularly for privacy and marketing claims, and advises on terms of service, consent disclosures, privacy policies, and website and marketing practices.
- Christopher Eby (Atlanta) defends pharmaceutical companies, consumer product manufacturers, and automotive clients in personal injury and class action cases. He develops novel and cross-cutting legal arguments that eliminate or reduce his clients’ exposure, persuades judges to exclude unfavorable evidence, and conveys complex scientific concepts in terms that juries understand.
- Joseph Eng (New York) focuses on patent litigation, patent prosecution and transactional matters. He represents clients in patent infringement lawsuits in federal district courts across the U.S. and before the International Trade Commission, involving microelectronic devices, semiconductor processing, anti-corrosion coatings, polymers, medical devices and respiratory protective devices.
- Jackie Fugitt (New York) is a trial lawyer who represents clients in a range of complex commercial disputes. Her experience includes defending clients against derivative claims for breach of fiduciary duty and representing clients in litigation related to contract, securities and antitrust matters.
- Kari Gardiner (Washington, D.C.) represents clients in all aspects of real estate transactions throughout the U.S., including acquisitions, dispositions, financings and corporate structuring and restructuring. Her experience includes representing developers, investors, lenders and housing authorities.
- Adam Gregory (Singapore) is a construction law specialist who has advised multinational clients on the largest and most complex arbitrations globally. Adam’s specific experience relates to the more technical and complex aspects of construction and infrastructure disputes, as well as project management in the APAC region.
- Stacy Hambleton (Los Angeles) focuses her practice in the areas of complex civil litigation and products liability defense. She has experience defending Fortune 500 corporations in multi-district litigation and California coordinated proceedings.
- Jordan Hodge (Atlanta) advises private fund sponsors and investors, primarily in the real estate sector, on a wide range of complex transactions, including fund formation, joint ventures, separate accounts and co-investment vehicles. She also advises on other private fund matters, including corporate governance, regulatory and compliance matters, and complex restructurings.
- Rania Kajan (Atlanta) defends clients in the technology, pharmaceutical, automotive, and energy/mining industries in nationwide product liability and mass tort litigation from inception through trial.
- Patrick Lafferty (Washington, D.C.) focuses on patent litigation and counseling, including matters related to semiconductors, cybersecurity, optics, encryption and network security, distributed networks, telecommunications (including cellular standards), radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, software applications, FinTech, and Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).
- Mike Lombardo (Chicago) represents clients in a wide array of complex commercial disputes, including mass torts, trade secret, intellectual property, partnership disputes, trust and estate litigation, and breach of contract claims. He also represents clients in investigation matters.
- Sophia Luby (Washington, D.C.) represents clients in regulatory proceedings, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation. She frequently represents major accounting firms and individual accountants before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and other governing entities.
- Steven Mare (New York) represents banks, debt funds and other financial institutions in real estate finance transactions ranging from the origination of construction loans to mortgage/mezzanine loans to back-leverage loans.
- Brian Meiners (Washington, D.C.) focuses his practice on government antitrust investigations that include criminal and civil matters, strategic transactions, and compliance matters. He represents clients before the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and international and state enforcement agencies.
- Ramon Miyar (San Francisco) focuses his practice on complex civil litigation and arbitration and regularly advises businesses on a wide range of employment-related topics, assists with the resolution of employee-related crises, and represents employers in government audits and investigations.
- Kevin O’Brien (New York) is a litigator focusing on high-stakes and complex business disputes, with a particular focus on litigation over commercial transactions, bankruptcy-related disputes and professional liability matters. He has represented clients in a wide variety of cases, including contract disputes, business torts, and consumer and securities fraud class actions.
- Alec Rubenstein (New York) represents institutional lenders, alternative capital providers, insurance companies, and debt funds in the origination of commercial real estate financings, including construction loans, refinancings, bridge financings, and a range of back-leverage structures relating to various asset classes, including office buildings, multi-family complexes and other commercial properties.
- Franklin Sacha (Atlanta) defends companies in complex products liability, class action, and mass tort disputes across the United States, with a particular focus on defending companies in the automotive and transportation industries.
- Jessica Shook (Chicago) defends multi-national companies in complex class and mass action litigation involving products liability, false advertising, unfair business practices, unfair and deceptive trade practices, consumer fraud, and consumer protection claims.
- Cedric Soule (New York) represents corporations in international disputes. A native English, French, and Spanish speaker who is common and civil law trained (barred in New York and Paris), Cedric has acted in over 60 investment and commercial arbitrations, as well as other international disputes, including high-profile litigations in Europe, South America, and Africa.
- Matt Vandenberg (Austin) advises clients worldwide facing complex construction and commercial challenges. He represents owners, contractors and other stakeholders across diverse projects and in all forms of dispute resolution, including domestic and international arbitration, as well as state and federal court litigation.
- Jenni Weaver (London) focuses on electronic discovery issues, particularly in matters of product liability and governmental investigations. Her primary focus is ensuring her clients’ European operations and electronic discovery processes are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The following lawyers will be counsel effective January 1, 2026:
- Luis Andrade (New York) advises public and private equity firms on buy- and sell-side transactional matters, focusing on energy and infrastructure. He also is experienced with corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, stock-purchase and asset acquisitions, equity financings and joint-venture arrangements in various industries, including healthcare, automotive and telecommunications.
- Ankit Bahri (Singapore) advises multinational corporations and institutional investors on Asia-focused investigations, including internal reviews, government inquiries, compliance diligence, and risk advisory matters. He also plays a key role in high-profile U.S. Congressional and government investigations, providing critical cross-time-zone support on fast-moving matters.
- Shouvik Bhattacharya (London) focuses on complex and high-stakes commercial and investor-state international arbitrations and has particular experience in energy (including oil and gas and renewables), emerging technologies, financial services, mining, aviation and construction. He also advises clients on issues of U.S. federal and state law with a transnational focus.
- Kassi Burns (Dallas) centers her practice on litigation and discovery, artificial intelligence and e-discovery consultation, data privacy, and AI governance. She is a frequently published author and speaker on topics related to AI and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
- Julianne Duran (Washington, D.C.) focuses on complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts, including breach of contract, false advertising, fraudulent misrepresentation, class action, mass tort, and appellate law matters.
- Elliott Foote (Atlanta) focuses his practice on complex commercial and appellate litigation. He has represented clients in state and federal courts in matters involving class actions, data privacy, employee benefits, products liability, and securities and shareholder disputes.
- Arlene Hennessey (Houston) focuses on environmental, health and safety (EHS) regulatory compliance counseling and enforcement defense, government and internal company investigations, and environmental incident or crisis response.
- Rebecca Johns (Los Angeles) focuses on defending food and beverage, dietary supplement, and consumer product manufacturers in consumer class action litigation.
- Ryan Kearney (Atlanta) is a litigator and trial lawyer with extensive experience in environmental and regulatory compliance, climate change and adaptation, mass tort and wrongful death suits involving tobacco, medical devices and consumer products, crisis management, personal injury and commercial litigation.
- Bryan King (Los Angeles) defends Fortune 100 and other large companies in a wide range of complex litigation matters, including product liability, toxic tort and commercial cases.
- Dirk Lasater (Atlanta) advises clients at all growth stages, from early stage to Fortune 20 companies, on complex commercial and technology transactions, including cloud, artificial intelligence/machine learning, procurement, sourcing and a variety of services transactions.
- Frederick Lazell (London) advises clients on energy project development and regulation globally, in particular low-carbon fuels and decarbonization initiatives, and has extensive experience with energy regulations and policies in Europe and the UK.
- Alison Pearman (Washington, D.C.) focuses her practice on structured finance, primarily representing data center and digital infrastructure clients in asset-backed securitizations and other financing transactions.
- Kimberly Rai (New York) advises a variety of healthcare industry clients on complex transactional and regulatory matters.
- Nika Silva (Abu Dhabi) focuses on structured finance and represents clients in a variety of U.S.-based asset-backed securitization and structured lending transactions, including 144A issuance platforms and structured private credit. In particular, Nika serves as issuer’s and borrower’s counsel for data center and fintech clients.
- Kim Wade (New York) focuses on white-collar criminal defense, internal and government investigations, and the defense and counseling of global companies related to cross-border crises and other high-risk matters. Drawing from her affirmative and defensive litigation experience, she represents clients facing complex inquiries by the Department of Justice, the SEC, and other federal, state and international regulators.
- Allison White (Atlanta) focuses on consumer class actions and other complex commercial litigation. She has experience managing cross-jurisdictional litigation by helping develop and execute coordinated strategies across dozens of federal and state courts.
About King & Spalding
King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 1,300 lawyers in 26 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and consistently earns recognition for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality, and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com.
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