It is with great pride that WSHB announces the elevation of twenty attorneys to the level of partnership effective January 1, 2023. The new partners are Alexi Antoniou (Fresno), Edward Baldwin (Northern California), Christopher Chapaneri (Dallas), Andreea Custurea (Los Angeles), Jenna Melton Fowler (Atlanta), Christopher Heo (Phoenix), Tudor Jones (Sonoma County), Mindy Kulikov (Los Angeles), Christina Loni (Rancho Cucamonga), David McDonough (Northern California), Molly Moyer (Atlanta), Cole Munson (New York), Ryan Neri (Chicago), Jacqueline Murphy (White Plains), Ilon Oliveira (Northern California), James Parish (Dallas), Trevor Peck (Atlanta), Susana Santana (Las Vegas), Richard Young (Las Vegas), and Megan Zlokas (North Carolina).
Partnership elevation is offered to those attorneys who have consistently demonstrated exceptional legal, supervisory, and management skills. Each has a proven track record of providing WSHB clients with first-class legal representation while successfully maintaining a strong team of professionals fully involved and working together to produce the best possible result for the client.
WSHB enjoyed another year of phenomenal organic growth, with the opening of new offices in Houston, Texas and Richmond, Virginia. This growth is clearly linked to WSHB's time-tested policy of developing a strong pipeline of talent and providing ample opportunity for current attorneys to grow and succeed level after level within the firm. Each of the twenty attorneys promoted to partner this year are evidence of this talent and bring a strong record of trial experience as well as consistent results.
Alexi Antoniou: Alexi Antoniou is based in WSHB’s Fresno office, representing both local entities and large international corporations. Alexi’s practice focuses on environmental, toxic tort/environmental exposure, agricultural, construction, medical malpractice, professional liability, commercial and real estate litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Alexi worked for an innovative Silicon Valley legal start-up handling Dodd-Frank compliance issues for major global banks. He has also worked in-house for a large multinational corporation in the ag sector. Prior to starting his legal practice, Alexi served as a legal affairs intern with the U.S. State Department at the United Nations. While at WSHB, Alexi has successfully represented clients before administrative agencies, in complex law and motion matters and as second chair at trial.
Edward Baldwin: Edward has litigated cases in a broad range of practice areas including professional liability, products liability, catastrophic injury, public entity defense, subrogation, right of privacy, and intellectual property. He has successfully tried cases to verdict in most Bay Area counties, Los Angeles and the Central Valley, and resolved hundreds of cases in mediation and arbitration. Prior to law school, Edward served as a line officer in the U.S. Navy, thrice deployed underway to the Arabian Sea.
Christopher Chapaneri: Christopher Chapaneri is a strategic, results-oriented litigator, obtaining favorable settlements where appropriate and trying cases before a judge or jury when needed. This includes first and second chair jury trial experience in state and federal courts. Christopher has an uncanny ability to intuitively anticipate litigation methods pursued by all parties in a lawsuit, allowing him the ability to engage “outside-the-box” strategies where appropriate. He takes zealous advocacy seriously to help clients feel more at ease during stressful litigation while remaining calm and respectful throughout litigation. Christopher primarily focuses his practice on legal issues and liability involving amusement parks, water parks, adventure parks, trampoline parks, carnivals, and other entertainment venues, primarily throughout Texas and Oklahoma. While amusement park litigation is his passion, Christopher is experienced and enjoys practicing in a wide array of cases including, commercial litigation, wrongful death/survivor actions, products liability, premises liability, construction defect, catastrophic injury, transportation matters, employment litigation, and civil appeals.
Andreea Custurea: Andreea Custurea work out of WSHB’s Los Angeles office, where her wide-ranging litigation practice focuses on complex civil issues, including business litigation, wrongful death, construction defect and products liability matters. Prior to joining the firm, Andreea worked on both the plaintiff and defense side and her practice focused on complex catastrophic injury matters, including complex transportation issues, prosecution and defense of Business and Professions Code section 17200, actions involving intentional act matters, and defense of religious institutions. Andreea has extensive experience in all phases of litigation, including pre-litigation resolution of matters, pre-trial discovery, motion practice, mediation, arbitration, and trial preparation.
Jenna Melton Fowler: Based out of WSHB's Atlanta office, Jenna’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation. She is experienced in complex torts and casualty, transportation, construction, commercial and business litigation, products liability, mass torts and toxic tort litigation, and environmental litigation. An experienced litigator, Jeanna seamlessly handles claims from initial response to appeal. Jenna is a cum laude graduate Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. While there, she served as the editor-in-chief of the school's law journal, a student ambassador, and a research assistant. Her previous work experience includes working as a staff attorney at the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Christopher Heo: Christopher Heo works in WSHB’s Phoenix office. His varied practice with the firm includes professional liability, employment, transportation, product liability, and catastrophic injury. Chris is a graduate of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he participated in the Juvenile Family Justice Clinic and served as President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. While in law school, Chris also clerked with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. He is an active member of the Arizona Asian American Bar Association and has been serving as an Executive Board Member since 2019.
Tudor Jones: Tudor Jones' home base is in WSHB’s Sonoma County office, where he practices complex civil litigation, including matters involving construction and professional liability, land use, business litigation, mass transit, and catastrophic injury and wrongful death. In addition to his litigation practice, Tudor also provides counsel to cannabis startups and has experience working within regulatory frameworks across multiple industries. Prior to practicing law, Tudor worked as a financial services strategy consultant where he served C-level executives from dozens of Fortune 500 companies. In 2015, he presented a guest lecture at the University of San Francisco School of Law on the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, as well as the emergence of “FinTech” and its potential impacts on consumer protections and regulatory frameworks within the area of banking law.
Mindy Kulikov: Mindy Bae Kulikov is based in WSHB’s Los Angeles office. Her practice is focused on professional liability and commercial litigation. She represents licensed professionals including attorneys, architects, accountants, real estate brokers and agents, insurance brokers, and property management companies. She also has extensive business and commercial litigation experience involving claims of breach of contract, fraud/misrepresentation, intellectual property theft, as well as transactional experience negotiating and drafting business-to-business agreements.
Christina Loni: Christina Loni practices primarily out of WSHB’s Rancho Cucamonga office. Christina is experienced in handling a broad range of civil litigation matters, including catastrophic injury, invasion of privacy, employment law, landlord-tenant, and construction defect. In practice, Christina is a strong advocate for her clients facing claims of unfair employment practices and negligence in both state and federal court.
David McDonough: David McDonough practices in WSHB's Northern California office, where he focuses on complex civil litigation, construction defect litigation, and general liability litigation throughout the state of California, in both state and federal court. He also is a Discovery Facilitator, helping resolve discovery disputes through a program in Contra Costa County Superior Court. In addition to litigating cases, David also acts as a trusted advisor to dozens of companies, working to help them avoid the pitfalls of litigation, and safeguard the companies' futures.
Molly Moyer: Molly handles civil defense and insurance coverage matters out of the firm’s Atlanta office. Her coverage practice focuses on providing insurance coverage advice and representing both domestic and international insurers in third-party insurance cases. Molly’s defense practice focuses on premises liability and transportation claims. Before joining WSHB, Molly gained extensive courtroom experience working as an Assistant Public Defender in Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit. Molly earned her law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she graduated cum laude.
Cole Munson: Cole Munson calls New York home and focuses his practice on multiple and complex areas of civil litigation, including New York Labor Law, construction defect, catastrophic injury, property damage, insurance coverage, and breach of contract. Cole has successfully obtained defense verdicts at arbitration and trial, as well as successfully obtained judgments in favor of his clients on summary judgment. Prior to joining the firm, Cole worked with insurance carriers and their insureds on a variety of matters including automobile negligence, insurance coverage, construction defect, professional liability, real estate and subrogation.
Jacqueline Murphy: Jacqueline Murphy practices in WSHB’s White Plains office, where she focuses her practice on professional liability matters and employment practices liability claims. Additionally, Jacqueline is a member of the firm’s London Coverage Team. In this capacity, Jacqueline assists London syndicates and markets with a wide variety of insurance matters including first party and third party claims. She provides coverage evaluations and recommendations for primary and excess carriers for both the domestic and London insurance market. As part of her coverage practice, Jacqueline handles insurance related litigation, performs detailed analysis of insurance policies, drafts in-depth coverage opinions, conducts examinations under oath and facilitates settlements in all lines of business, including natural disasters, construction, business interruption, professional liability, general liability, environmental, and property.
Ryan Neri: Ryan’s based out of WSHB’s Chicago office, where he focuses his practice on defending construction, professional liability, Illinois Dram Shop Act, and complex civil litigation matters. Ryan handles all aspects of litigation, from inception through trial. His trial experience includes Cook County – a notoriously plaintiff friendly jurisdiction – where he has received defense verdicts on behalf of our clients. Ryan has successfully argued and won several motions for summary judgment in general liability and high exposure construction cases. Ryan has used his extensive litigation experience to obtain favorable results during arbitrations and large scale mediations.
Ilon Oliveira: Ilon is a partner in the Northern California office of WSHB handling complex civil litigation as well as managing a successful corporate practice. Her skill set includes solid results in a variety of litigated matters including business, catastrophic injury, construction defect, wrongful death, and habitability matters. She brings in each of these areas strategic tools to resolve the matter at the earliest juncture possible, but at the same time, is surgical in the discovery sequence and preparation required to success at trial. In addition to her litigation practice, Ilon also provides counsel on all facets of complex business transactions, including entity start-up, fundraising, contract drafting and negotiation, and corporate governance and compliance. Ilon has experience in advising established businesses, investors, borrowers, individuals, and startups on matters including entity formation, business structure, and corporate governance, seed funding, private equity financing transactions, equity compensation plans, stock purchases and transfers, and regulatory compliance, including preparation of reports and filings for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In her spare time, Ilon enjoys reading murder-mystery fiction novels, camping and hiking, playing video games, cooking, and spending as much time as possible with her daughter.
James Parish: James Parish is a commercial litigator out of Dallas, Texas who understands that outstanding courtroom advocacy needs to be balanced with pragmatism and a focus on achieving quick, cost-effective results that allow clients to get back to business. His approach to all matters is geared towards minimizing risk, articulating realistic expectations, and providing superior client service and results. In his practice, James has represented a variety of Fortune 500 companies across the Gulf states in mass tort, class action, and multi-district litigation. James primarily focuses his practice on legal issues and liability involving sexual assault in therapeutic settings and other industries. James is also experienced and enjoys practicing in a wide array of other cases including contact sport injuries, wrongful death/survivor actions, products liability, premises liability, catastrophic injury, and transportation matters.
Trevor Peck: Trevor’s practice focuses on providing insurance coverage advice and representing insurers in litigation. Trevor has experience representing primary, excess, and reinsurers in all phases of litigation. While Trevor has experience across a wide range of risks, he primarily handles professional and municipal liability claims. In particular, Trevor specializes in providing coverage advice for claims against law firms and architects, as well as wrongful imprisonment, police use of force, and sexual abuse claims against cities, counties, and educational and religious entities. He is based out of the firm’s Atlanta office.
Susana Santana: Susana Santana is based in WSHB’s Las Vegas office. Susana is a graduate of the Roger William University School of Law, where she was a top Moot Court competitor and the chair of the Latino Law Students Association. While in law school, Susana completed a yearlong internship with in-house counsel for GTECH, the largest commercial operator and provider of gaming technology in the world. Prior to working at WSHB, Susana served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Timothy C. Williams of the Clark County District Court, where she gained exposure to the court's complex civil docket. She also enjoys experience handling all facets of construction defect, toxic tort and occupational exposure, gaming, real estate and personal injury matters.
Richard Young: Richard Young is an accomplished litigator known for results in handling complex commercial litigation throughout the State of Nevada and is based in WSHB's Las Vegas office. Widely known to developers and general contractors throughout the nation for his prowess and sage guidance handling all facets of construction litigation, Richard has successfully litigated all issues emanating from construction, including construction defect, product liability, site accidents, employment and other issues arising from residential, mixed-use and commercial construction. Richard has substantial experience emanating from his tenure as a partner at his former firm handling product liability cases involving catastrophic loss and related personal injury and property damage, commercial trucking, transportation, insurance coverage, and other general liability matters. In addition, his experience includes transactional matters including risk transfer, contract preparation and pre-claim navigation. Richard has resolved countless matters through various forms of alternative dispute resolution, and benefits clients greatly as a result of extensive training he received from Pepperdine University’s prestigious Straus Institute. This eye for creative, strategic and innovative avenues to defend clients balances liability and legal spend, something which he brings to every matter assigned.
Megan Zlokas: Megan is a partner in WSHB’s North Carolina and South Carolina offices where she handles complex civil litigation across a variety of practice areas including catastrophic injury and wrongful death, construction defect, medical malpractice, and employment litigation. Megan has appeared in both federal and state court. Megan is skilled in all phases of litigation, including law and motion, discovery, mediation, and trial preparation. She has secured multiple victories for our clients through motions for summary judgment and effective negotiation techniques. She is also a successful appellate attorney and has secured appellate victories for her clients. Megan is a graduate of Villanova University School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Dean’s full tuition merit scholarship. Megan received her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.