Virginia Grogan, the former Managing Partner of the firm's Orange County office since October 1997, retired from the partnership in December 2006. A member of the firm since 1979, Ms. Grogan has acquired broad litigation and trial experience. Her work primarily involved complex business litigation, including securities actions, antitrust and other unfair competition cases, toxic tort and contaminated land matters.
During the latter part of the 1980's, Ms. Grogan's litigation practice concentrated primarily on securities litigation. Her clients in this area included, among others, Drexel Burnham Lambert Incorporated, for which she handled numerous major class action litigations. She also represented Zenith Insurance Company and Mossimo, Inc. in similar actions.
During the early 1990's, Ms. Grogan worked extensively in the area of creditor's and debtor's rights, including particular concentration on such rights as they relate to the real estate industry. Her representations in this practice area included, among others, PaineWebber (relating to the financing of a major hotel complex in Laughlin, Nevada) and Maguire Thomas Partners (relating to a troubled development project).
Throughout her career, Ms. Grogan also worked in the antitrust and unfair competition arenas. Her work in those areas has involved, among other things, two lengthy trials involving antitrust and unfair competition issues in Philadelphia and Hawaii. Her representation of past clients involved a wide variety of fields, including, among others, the health care fields, petroleum refining and marketing fields, banking and real estate. Her work in the unfair competition arena involved multiple litigations (in both State and Federal Court) under California Business & Professions Code Section 17200. These latter matters have included both representative private attorney general actions and traditional class actions alleging false advertising and various other failures to comply with applicable state and federal laws.
Ms. Grogan was active in the firm's management throughout her career with Latham & Watkins. She has at various times served on the firm's Finance, Professional Standards and Associates Committees, ultimately serving as Chair to the latter two. She was also tapped to serve as one of the six partners on the firm's Succession Committee, which assisted in identifying and interviewing prospective candidates for the current firm-wide Managing Partner.