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Loeb Updates from February and March 2023

Have you heard how Loeb is moving the needle? Loeb’s lawyers are always advising on the latest trends, issues, and legislation to help our clients and communities succeed. Here are some highlights and firm news from the past few months!

  • We are excited to announce the arrival of Real Estate Investments & Transactions partner Adam Hirst. Adam joins with significant experience in matters related to construction and acquisition financings, workouts, joint ventures and acquisitions and dispositions of office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, multifamily buildings and other real estate projects, read more about Adam’s practice here.
  • Loeb is thrilled to share that Litigation partner Safia Hussain has been named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2023. This year-long professional development program connects high-potential attorneys with top tier peers, managing partners and general counsel to provide mentorship and career guidance. We are also excited to announce that entertainment associate Ava Badiee and Corporate associate Evan Saunders have been named LCLD Pathfinders for 2023. They will participate in a seven month program that provides foundational leadership and relationship-building skills for high-performing attorneys at the beginning of their careers. In more diversity related news, the firm has received the Aspire Diversity award by Lawyers of Color (LoC), and will be highlighted in their “Diversity Issue 2023.” LoC is steadfast in promoting diversity, democracy and equality in not only the legal profession but also in marginalized communities.
  • Loeb has been busy making deals happen in a variety of industries. We represented Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a professional gamer and streaming superstar, in his new role as Chief Innovation Officer at gaming and esports company GameSquare. Read more about the deal here. 2022 was a big year in the sporting universe, with live sports making a comeback and esports continuing to develop within the metaverse and other virtual gaming platforms. For a comprehensive look back at our sports and esports deals, click here. On a separate entertainment note, we represented Iconoclast, the Los Angeles-based brand development and management company founded by music executive Olivier Chastan, in its acquisition of the music publishing catalogue of Nick Monson, a renowned songwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Lady Gaga. Read more here
  • Every year, the firm recognizes individuals who demonstrated a strong commitment to pro bono work. For their efforts in 2022, we are thrilled to honor six lawyers—Benjamin Dach, Ryan Kashfian, Ali Schaller, Shu-Ping Shen, Emily Stone and Noah Weingarten. 

From helping Ukrainian refugees to nonprofits promoting mental health awareness, Benjamin Dach, a former Patent Litigation Associate in New York, aims to provide meaningful legal assistance, “overall, my pro bono practice is dedicated to providing legal assistance to those who need it most.”

For Ryan Kashfian, a Corporate Associate in Los Angeles, his ability to use his skills and expertise to impact others from small businesses to better educational opportunities for students exemplifies his broad spectrum pro bono practice, “Knowing that I was able to make a difference in these individuals’ lives, even in a small way, made the pro bono work all the more fulfilling and reinforced my commitment to using my abilities to serve those in need.”

In 2022, Chicago Litigation Associate Ali Schaller took on a pro bono matter involving a contentious visitation arrangement between co-parents, which naturally involved many challenges including navigating difficult local procedures and rules, “In the end, following a trial, we were able to secure the court-ordered parenting plan our client wanted all along. I was grateful to navigate the challenges with our Loeb team and deliver a fantastic result for our client.”

Shu-Ping Shen, Trust & Estates Senior Counsel in New York, mainly focuses his pro bono work on immigration issues, and reuniting families who were intentionally separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border, and further helping them obtain work authorization in the United States once reunited. “These families will still have challenges as they adapt to a new life in the U.S. and continue to navigate an imperfect immigration system, but through this work, we can at least restore the family unit so that they can face these challenges together.”

In her pro bono work in 2022, Emily Stone, Litigation Senior Counsel in Chicago, represented two women in different, high stakes and deeply personal matters, “Not only was I able to provide them with very positive outcomes in their respective cases, but I know that having a lawyer on their team provided them each with enormous comfort on the road to achieving those results. Having that level of positive impact was incredibly meaningful and fulfilling.”

Noah Weingarten, a New York-based bankruptcy associate worked on several pro bono matters last year, but the one that stood out to him was defending an individual debtor sued by a creditor, “This matter highlighted the uphill battle that pro se litigants can face and the ability that we—as lawyers—have to make a meaningful contribution to our clients’ live by helping them with their legal issues.”