Experienced prosecutor and intellectual property attorney Priya Sopori has joined Locke Lord’s Los Angeles Office as a Partner in the IP Litigation Practice. She is the fourth new attorney hired in Los Angeles in recent months and one of many new California additions as the international law firm continues to bolster its litigation and transactional capabilities on the West Coast.

Sopori served for the past five years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, where she prosecuted numerous white collar crimes, violent felonies and other criminal cases. She also spent several years with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, focusing on a general commercial practice as well as IP litigation.

“As first chair in numerous prosecutions and grand jury investigations, Priya’s outstanding trial experience immediately bolsters Locke Lord’s West Coast ability to serve clients in the IP litigation arena,” said Mitch Popham, Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office. “She has an excellent track record in copyright, trademark and trade dress issues, and her white collar experience will be invaluable in adding to our already strong national White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations Practice.”

Locke Lord’s West Coast presence and capabilities have increased dramatically in recent years, with new lateral Partners and enhanced practice areas in its offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco. Partner Louis Dienes joined the Corporate Practice in Los Angeles in late May, adding years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, equity and debt financings, and business operations to the Los Angeles office. Los Angeles Partner Daniel H. Peters joined the Firm in April, boosting the Firm’s West Coast Corporate Practice with extensive international experience in domestic and cross-border acquisitions. Earlier in the year, Partner John A. McKinsey joined the Sacramento office, bringing aboard years of experience working in corporate energy projects throughout California and nationwide.

The recent West Coast hires are the latest in a strategic pattern of growth in the Firm’s Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco offices. Two years ago, a team of securities litigation and insurance attorneys led by well-respected former Securities & Exchange Commission official Michael F. Perlis became part of the Los Angeles office. In that same time frame, Locke Lord added a group of attorneys to its Sacramento office and another Partner to its San Francisco office to add even more strength to the Firm’s national and international corporate practice and its commercial litigation practice. Many of these attorneys also represent Chinese companies, which complements Locke Lord’s recently expanded Hong Kong office that has grown to more than 15 lawyers.

Sopori earned her law degree from the University of Virginia Law School, where she was a Dillard Fellow, a member of Students United Promoting Racial Awareness, and Action for Better Living Environment. Early in her law career, she served as General Counsel for a non-profit improvisational theater group and school. Born in New Delhi, India, Sopori speaks Spanish and English and earned more than 60 speaker and team awards in the American Parliamentary Debate Association at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her undergraduate degree. She is an Adjunct Professor of Law at La Verne College of Law and teaches White Collar Crime.

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