Pepper Hamilton LLP announced today that Pamela S. Palmer has joined the firm’s Los Angeles office as a Partner in the Commercial Litigation Practice Group. Ms. Palmer joins the firm from Latham & Watkins where she has focused her practice on representing clients in complex business litigation, securities and investor disputes, derivative suits, mergers and acquisitions litigation, class actions, SEC matters and internal corporate investigations.

Ms. Palmer’s move to Pepper brings the number of partners in the firm’s Los Angeles office to eight. Opened in 2012, the fast-growing office houses 18 attorneys and assists clients with a broad range of corporate, litigation and regulatory legal services. Ms. Palmer will also maintain an office with Pepper Hamilton in Orange County. She furthers Pepper’s strategic initiative to grow its West Coast presence with recently established offices in Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley, in addition to Orange County.

“Pamela’s deep and broad commercial litigation experience will be a significant addition to our growing California offices,” said Amy Ginensky, Chair of the Commercial Litigation Practice of Pepper Hamilton. “Her extensive work in securities litigation and corporate defense will complement and enhance our existing strong securities and corporate litigation practice. We are delighted to welcome Pamela to Pepper Hamilton.”

Ms. Palmer has represented clients based in California and across the country on a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, mortgage, health care, pharmaceutical, communications, Internet, technology and entertainment. Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies as well as private companies, boards of directors, executives and accounting professionals. Ms. Palmer has successfully defended clients in federal and state trial courts, courts of appeal, arbitrations and regulatory enforcement proceedings. She has led board and special committee investigations involving whistleblowers and stockholder demands. She frequently advises clients regarding board governance, business judgment, disclosure, indemnification and D&O insurance.

Gary Apfel, Managing Partner of Pepper’s Los Angeles office, said the addition of Ms. Palmer underscores the strategic role that the office is playing in Pepper’s growth as a national firm. “This office has expanded significantly in the two years since it opened. The addition of an attorney of Pamela’s caliber speaks to both the reputation that the firm enjoys as well as the important role that Pepper’s California offices are playing in building a national presence.”

“I am very pleased to join Pepper Hamilton and the outstanding team of attorneys who serve in the Los Angeles and Orange County offices,” said Ms. Palmer. “I am excited by the opportunity to help build Pepper Hamilton’s California offices and practice on the West Coast and to offer clients such a broad platform of exceptionally high-quality client services.”

Ms. Palmer is a graduate of University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Order of the Coif, and served as an editor of the Southern California Law Review. Following law school, Ms. Palmer clerked for Judge Walter Ely on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Philosophy with honors from the University of California at Irvine.

Ms. Palmer currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the California Women’s Law Center in Los Angeles, the Constitutional Rights Foundation in Orange County and the Federal Bar Association of Orange County.

www.pepperlaw.com