Latham’s Tech Prowess Dominates 2024 California Legal Awards

Latham & Watkins demonstrates elite powerhouse status in California and the technology sector according to The Recorder and Law.com’s 2024 California Legal Awards, with honors across 10 award categories — more than any other law firm. The honors include recognition in four law firm categories and six categories spotlighting individual partners. According to Law.com, the awards “celebrate the achievements of lawyers and companies leading technology, innovation and the profession as a whole.”

Michele Johnson, Global Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department, earned the Distinguished Leader Award.

Melanie Blunschi, Co-Chair of the Bay Area Litigation & Trial Department, was honored in the Women Leaders in Tech Law category for the second year in a row.

Also, the following four partners are finalists for their respective awards:

• Tad Freese (Bay Area) — Office Managing Partner of the Year
• Michael Rubin (Bay Area) — Attorney of the Year
• Marvin Putnam (Century City) — Entertainment Lawyer of the Year
• Hilary Strong (Orange County) — Real Estate Lawyer of the Year

Latham is a finalist in the following firm categories:

• Law Firm of the Year, recognizing overall top performance across the full spectrum of categories.
• Tech Industry Litigation Department of the Year, which Latham won last year, highlighting a continuing run of stunning courtroom victories for the world’s most innovative tech companies.
• Tech Industry Advisory Team of the Year, marking the firm’s third year in a row as a finalist. The award recognizes outstanding transactional work, such as Latham’s role advising Reddit on its US$748 million IPO, New Relic on its US$6.5 billion take-private acquisition, and Canva on its US$1.5 billion brokered secondary share sale.
• The Vanguard Award, for the second year in a row, which honors efforts “to stay one step ahead of the current and future forces shaping the legal industry,” such as the work of Latham’s AI Task Force to support the entire AI ecosystem across the firm’s global platform.

The California Legal Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles on October 15.