O’Melveny & Myers LLP announced today that Heather Traeger will be joining the Firm as a partner in the Firm’s Financial Services Practice.  Traeger will be based in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office.  Traeger, formerly a counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Associate Counsel at the Investment Company Institute, is well-known and highly regarded in the investment adviser and SEC communities.  She will provide clients with advice as to registration and compliance of their management activities, including under the Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act, and regarding the distribution of fund interests to investors, including regulation under the broker-dealer provisions of the Exchange Act.

International law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP today announced that it has hired some twenty-five experienced Intellectual Property (IP) attorneys and patent agents so far this year as it works to keep pace with growing demand for the Firm’s IP prosecution, transaction and strategy service offerings in Silicon Valley and four other U.S. cities. A steady uptick in client activity that started in January 2011 continues to accelerate at a rapid pace, with the Firm adding ten new attorneys in the month of September alone. The Firm expects to hire an additional group of at least twenty more attorneys and patent agents by the spring of 2012, expanding McDermott’s IP prosecution, transaction and strategy practice group to record levels.

Middletons successfully acted for Landis+Gyr AG in its recent $2.3 billion sale to Toshiba. The company is a global industry leader in total metering solutions for energy measurement and has installed over 300 million electricity meters, making it a dominant player globally.

Ashurst and Blake Dawson have announced plans to combine their businesses in Asia and merge their operations globally, creating a new and powerful legal presence in the international market under the Ashurst name.

Expanding its nationally-ranked Life Sciences practice, McDermott Will & Emery LLP announced today that it has added two leading lawyers in this industry group both of whom will be resident in its Washington, D.C. office.

Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that Holly House has joined the Antitrust and Global Competition practice in San Francisco as partner. Ms. House, a high-profile antitrust litigator with a leading market reputation, joins from Bingham McCutchen LLP, where she was co-chair of the firm’s antitrust and trade regulation practice group.

The global law firm Jones Day announced today that M&A attorney David Brewster will join the Firm’s Boston Office as a partner. Mr. Brewster was formerly a partner in Skadden’s Boston office, where he worked for more than 25 years.