Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie expands Business Transactions Practice Group
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP has expanded the firm’s Business Transactions practice with the addition of four new attorneys, who join the firm from Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
This group of attorneys provides the firm’s clients enhanced resources in the area of business transactions incorporating real estate, corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions and tax.
“This year our Business Transactions Group has seen significant growth and has expanded 22 percent,” said Ken Van Winkle, managing partner of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. “With an already extensive real estate practice group, our growth has been strategic and aimed at offering clients even more robust corporate legal services to meet their needs in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, as well as tax.”
The firm’s business transactions practice welcomes attorneys from Steptoe & Johnson, Pat Derdenger, Kevin Olson, and Nancy White as partners and Karen Lowell as an associate to the Phoenix office.
“We are delighted to welcome this new group of talented attorneys to the team,” said Amy Altshuler, Chair of the firm’s Business Transactions Group. “They have exceptional experience and great energy and align well with our efforts to provide clients elevated service.”
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie’s Business Transactions Group also welcomed four additional attorneys earlier this year to the Phoenix and Tucson offices, including Tyler Carrell, Jason Simon, Joshua Crandell, and Molly Magestro.
MacQueen & Gottlieb hires summer law clerk
Arizona’s top-ranked real estate law firm, MacQueen & Gottlieb, PLC (M&G) today announced the hiring of its summer law clerk for the coming months, Nicholas Spear. Spear is a juris doctor candidate in the class of 2020 in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Spear is an associate editor of the ASU Sports & Entertainment Law Journal and is an O’Connor Merit Scholar recipient. His activities include being the Vice President of Student Leadership for the ASU Student Bar Association, as well as a second-year law school class representative. Additionally, he has served as a class representative and vice president for ASU Sports Law & Business club.
Prior to law school Spear earned his bachelor of science degree in Policy, Planning and Development with an emphasis on real estate development from the University of Southern California in 2017. Prior to transferring to USC, he spent a year at Pepperdine University.
In the summer of 2018 Spear combined his love of golf and business and founded his own golf agency, Leading Edge Sports, which represents and consults with professional golfers. He was a team manager and summer camp counselor for the USC men’s golf team and still is a tournament level golfer. He also is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, due to several television and movie roles he had as a child actor.
UCP announces director of home-based services
For more than six decades, UCP has expanded alongside the needs of Arizona families to meet every new challenge, regardless of age, diagnosis, and disability. In an effort to provide the most current and proven methods of care to its members, UCP announced the addition of Jeffrey Tourdot as Director of Home-Based Services and Day Treatment for Adults.
Jeff is no stranger to meeting challenges – diagnosed with a learning disability in fourth grade, he was repeating his sophomore year in high school when he overdosed at just 16 years old. That is when he met Mrs. Miller, a special education teacher who saw Jeff for his ability, not his disability. Mrs. Miller continued to mentor Jeff after he graduated from high school, encouraging him to continue his education and assisting in finding ways to overcome new obstacles. Jeff successfully attended college and grad school, graduating with a Master of Public Administration. He knows firsthand how one person’s interest in the life of someone in need can be a transformative, amazing thing. And Jeff Tourdot has amazing things in mind for UCP of Central Arizona.
Jeff has set new goals for the current home-based services (HCBS), designed to allow each person the opportunity to become more independent, and the best chance at fulfilling a life without limits. He described this by saying, “We are working to build on UCP’s long history of success driven by meeting individuals where they are at through person-centered approaches…. one individual at a time.”
Joann Sweasy, PhD, joins UA Cancer Center
Joann Sweasy, PhD, an expert in DNA repair and genomic instability, has joined the University of Arizona Cancer Center as associate director for basic sciences.
Dr. Sweasy also has been appointed to a joint faculty position at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson in the Departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Radiation Oncology.
Dr. Sweasy’s research focuses on genomic instability and how it leads to mutations that result in human diseases, such as cancer. A major focus of her laboratory is to understand how single nucleotide polymorphisms found in DNA repair genes, including genes that function in homology-directed repair, non-homologous end-joining and base-excision repair in the germline and somatic tissues impact cancer risk and treatment.
“I look forward to working with the strong basic and translational scientists at the UA Cancer Center,” Dr. Sweasy said. “The UA Cancer Center offers significant opportunities to build teams and bring basic science to the bench side.”
