Five Prominent Arizona Lawyers Open Phoenix Office for HRO
04/21/2008
Five prominent Phoenix partners have joined Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO) and will open its Phoenix, Arizona office effective May 5, 2008. Janet G. Betts will manage the office, and Glenn S. Bacal, Robyn Nordin Stowell, Christine Meis McAuliffe, and Joseph W. Kruchek, all formerly of Jennings Strouss, will lead various other practices for HRO Phoenix.
The addition of these talented lawyers and the opening of a Phoenix office give HRO a unique position in the marketplace, in that it is the only firm in the region to have a significant presence in seven major Western cities, as well as two offices in Europe. Further, the firm now has a commanding hold in key strategic practices, including commercial law and securities, litigation, intellectual property, and business law and finance, including sports and entertainment transactions. A significant number of lawyers, now resident in HRO offices across the world, are considered by a variety of rankings to be the nation’s leaders in these areas of practice.
Janet G. Betts, as office managing attorney, will work with lawyers in all of HRO’s offices and continue her focus on corporate, tax, finance, and securities transactions. Among other honors, Ms. Betts was appointed to the Governor of Arizona’s Regulatory Review Counsel in 1996, and then reappointed in 1999. Ms. Betts was also the lead author of a chapter in a leading text book on business transactions for the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA). HRO’s corporate practice has been consistently ranked as one of the best in the region, and Ms. Betts will help to solidify the firm’s strong reputation in this area.
Glenn S. Bacal is the former Chair of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice and has been listed as one of the nation's leading intellectual property attorneys in Best Lawyers in America, Southwest Super Lawyers, and Super Lawyers. He has been involved in some of the leading intellectual property cases in Arizona and throughout the country, including the Fuddruckers and Two Pesos cases. Mr. Bacal has represented the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for decades and was first asked to do so by Orme Lewis, who was Mr. Wright's personal lawyer. HRO now has intellectual property lawyers in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, and Europe.
Christine Meis McAuliffe, former Co-Chair of Jennings’ Biotechnology & Life Sciences Industry Group, will work closely with Glenn Bacal and has a background and education in biology, genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, and organic chemistry and earned an LL.M. with a focus on Biotechnology and Genomic in 2007. Ms. McAuliffe is a registered patent attorney and practices in patent, trademark, and copyright law. She has published dozens of articles and has spoken an equal number of times on topics related to intellectual property, patents, and biotechnology. She is clearly a leader in the biotech field.
Robyn Nordin Stowell is the former Chair of Jennings’ Golf & Resort Transactions Practice Group and former Chair of the firm’s Real Estate Department. In addition to her broad representation of buyers, sellers, lenders, and landlords in sales, acquisitions, leasing, financing, and title issues, Ms. Stowell has extensive experience in golf course and private club matters, including the purchase, sale, and financing work, handling club turnovers in master planned communities, representing private club turnovers in master planned communities, and representing private clubs, developers, and members groups. Ms. Stowell has clients in Arizona, Colorado, California, and a host of other states. Her practice is an especially good fit with HRO’s extensive sports and entertainment practice, due to the fact the firm is regularly involved in the legal work related to the construction of entertainment and sports facilities, such as the Staples Center (Los Angeles) and O2 (London) and the redevelopment of their surrounding areas. The firm currently represents private clubs and golf courses in Colorado, Utah, and California.
Joseph W. Kruchek focuses in the areas of real estate acquisition and development financing, sales and asset-based financing involving security interests in personal property, real estate purchases and sales, asset purchases, and leasing transactions. HRO has developed a significant reputation in the area of real estate acquisition and finance, and Mr. Kruchek will work closely with those lawyers in HRO’s San Francisco and Denver offices.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP is an international law firm that was established in 1898 and has approximately 265 lawyers practicing in nine strategically positioned offices in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. The firm's lawyers provide a broad spectrum of legal services in virtually every area of the law, including corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, estate planning, commercial litigation, real estate, sports and entertainment, health, employment, tax, environmental, and intellectual property.