Bay Area litigators Simona Agnolucci and Ben Hur will launch the office and join the firm as partners. The San Francisco opening follows the successful launch of Willkie’s Palo Alto office at the end of 2018.

“Highly sought”

Both litigators have significant experience representing leading global technology companies, investors and individual clients in bet-the-company litigation, high-stakes federal and state government investigations, criminal prosecutions, and enforcement actions. Ms. Agnolucci specializes in complex litigation, including class actions, complex commercial
disputes and white collar criminal defense. She has tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal court. Mr. Hur has significant experience resolving complex commercial disputes for technology companies, ranging from start-ups to established corporations. He has deep and wide-ranging experience litigating commercial disputes involving intellectual property, unfair trade practices and commercial disparagement. Willkie chairman Thomas Cerabino stated, “Simona and Ben, two highly sought after litigators, will assist us in extending our litigation practice to the West Coast. We are extremely excited to help them grow this office and expand their business with our well established litigation, corporate and other capabilities.”

Building practice

Since the Palo Alto opening, the office, which concentrates on technology transactions and M&A primarily in the technology sector, has quickly grown to 14 lawyers. The addition of a litigation team in the Bay Area continues the firm’s growth of its litigation practice, which most recently added Michael Gottlieb in Washington, DC and Randall Jackson in New York.
Ms. Agnolucci and Mr. Hur will lead the new office and build a litigation team on the West Coast. The firm also expects to continue expanding its transactional practices in the Bay Area.