Paul, Weiss Expands Presence in Northern California With Four Prominent Lateral Partners

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP announced today that Melinda Haag, Walter Brown and Randy Luskey will join the firm as partners in the Litigation Department, and Jeremy M. Veit as a partner in the Corporate Department. The four additions will form the foundation for the new Paul, Weiss Northern California office, alongside litigation partner Meredith Dearborn.

“We are thrilled that Melinda, Walt, Randy and Jeremy have chosen to join our partnership and help launch our San Francisco office,” said Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad S. Karp. “Our attorneys have a long history of securing successful outcomes for the largest and most important companies in the Bay Area and our clients have strongly encouraged us to establish an on-the-ground presence in Northern California to help them navigate their most significant legal challenges and business opportunities. With further expansion on the horizon, this world-class group of partners underscores Paul, Weiss’s position as a leading player in Northern California at a time of increased litigation and regulatory threats and expanding commercial opportunities.”

“It has been my great pleasure to work closely with Melinda and Walt and to see their many talents up close. I have been struck by how uniformly well-respected they and Randy are throughout the Bay Area and beyond – I cannot wait to be their partner,” said Paul, Weiss Litigation partner Karen L. Dunn, who joined Paul, Weiss last year and whose practice includes a focus on the Bay Area. “Together with our partners Meredith Dearborn, Bill Isaacson, Jeh Johnson, Jeannie Rhee and others, Paul, Weiss has put together an all-star team for our Bay Area clients facing business-critical litigation and government oversight.”

“Jeremy is a top-flight private equity lawyer with strong relationships across the region,” said Scott A. Barshay, chair of the Paul, Weiss Corporate Department. “We look forward to continuing to develop our West Coast corporate practice, building on Jeremy’s significant practice advising private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies.”

With more than three decades of experience handling white collar criminal matters, corporate investigations and complex commercial litigation, Melinda Haag is widely recognized as among the leading trial lawyers in the United States. A former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California and former chair of the global litigation department at her prior firm, Ms. Haag has been lead or co-lead lawyer in more than 20 jury and bench trials, including a wide variety of complex white collar and civil rights cases. She has handled countless complex investigations on behalf of companies, boards of directors and the government, and has represented numerous high-level executives in connection with government investigations and litigations, as well as internal investigations. Recently, Ms. Haag and Mr. Brown were recognized as “Top Trade Secrets Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal.

After being nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Ms. Haag served as U.S. Attorney in San Francisco from 2010-2015. Between 2003 and 2010, she was a partner at a large firm. Prior to that, Ms. Haag served for nine years as a federal prosecutor, first in Los Angeles and later in San Francisco, ultimately being tapped by then-U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller as Chief of the White Collar section of the DOJ’s San Francisco office.

With decades of high-level prosecutorial and private practice experience, Walt Brown is a seasoned trial lawyer. Mr. Brown, who chaired the white collar criminal defense practice at his prior firm, represents companies and individuals in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations, parallel civil litigation, and complex business litigation, as well as in crisis management matters.

Mr. Brown has consistently been recognized for his trial work, including being named by Benchmark Litigation as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in the United States in 2017, and as a “California Litigation Star” in 2018, and for his work representing clients in major corporate investigations, where he has been recognized as a leader by Chambers USA for many years. Earlier in his career, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he successfully tried 20 cases to verdict and handled numerous appeals before the Ninth Circuit.

A former federal prosecutor and a dynamic and accomplished trial lawyer, Randy Luskey has successfully tried nine cases to verdict. Mr. Luskey has defended clients in health care fraud matters, complex class actions and cases brought under the False Claims Act. He has played key courtroom roles in a string of impressive defense verdicts in recent years in some of the Bay Area’s highest-profile cases, including winning a recent acquittal in one of the state’s most closely watched federal criminal trade secrets jury trials and securing the dismissal of a case against a major hospital alleging Medicare fraud. In 2020, the Daily Journal selected Mr. Luskey as one of the top 100 lawyers in California.

From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Luskey was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California prosecuting a wide variety of federal criminal cases involving offenses such as mail/wire fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, RICO and trade secrets misappropriation.

Jeremy Veit is one of the Bay Area’s leading corporate lawyers, with strong relationships within the private equity and business community, particularly in Northern California. He focuses his practice on the full spectrum of private equity transactions, including leveraged acquisitions of both public and private targets, as well as equity and debt financings. Mr. Veit also has experience in public and private securities offerings, fund formation, executive compensation and general corporate matters.

Mr. Veit has represented several leading private equity firms and their portfolio companies, including Golden Gate Capital, FFL Partners (f/k/a Friedman Fleischer & Lowe) and JH Partners. His recent transactions include advising Golden Gate Capital and its portfolio company LiveVox in the pending $840 million merger of LiveVox with blank-check firm Crescent Acquisition Corp.; Golden Gate Capital in its sale of a 50% stake in Angus Chemical Co., valued at approximately $2.25 billion; and FFL Partners in its acquisition of a majority interest in ALKU. Mr. Veit has been recognized as one of the Daily Journal’s “Top 20 Under 40.”