In our most recent edition of Perspectives, I proudly reported that Carr, McClellan had been recognized by Martindale – Hubbell® as ranking within the top 1% of the nation’s law firms by being home to an exceptionally large number of lawyers who have earned an “AV Preeminent” rating from their peers.   I am now pleased to report that the firm has added three new young and exceptional lawyers to our roster of excellent and experienced professionals.

Helen A. Christakos has joined our Corporate & Business Group as Senior Counsel and Chair of our Intellectual Property, Privacy & Data Security practice. She represents clients in commercial transactions involving cutting edge intellectual property (IP) and technology issues.  Helen advises companies ranging from global public entities to emerging start-up ventures in developing, licensing, selling, acquiring, protecting and commercially exploiting intellectual property and technology assets. She also advises clients in a wide variety of industries on privacy, data security and ecommerce matters, and has spoken and written widely on these topics.  (See Helen’s article on page 2 that summarizes the FTC’s recent proclamation on consumer privacy guidelines.) Prior to joining Carr McClellan, Helen was a member of the IP group at Greenberg Traurig LLP.  Helen has degrees from Vassar, Cambridge University and Berkeley’s Boalt Hall.  She also managed to study in Berlin as a Fulbright Scholar.   Helen has been teaching a course at Santa Clara’s Law School in Technology and Intellectual Property Licensing and will continue to do so.  Helen speaks German, French and Greek.

Manroop “Roop” Purewal is the newest member of our Real Estate Group.  He counsels clients in all aspects of real estate transactions, including due diligence, acquisitions and dispositions, financing, leasing, entitlements, development, environmental review, and zoning.  Roop worked in the Land, Environment and Natural Resources division of the California Attorney General’s and served as an extern in the San Francisco City Attorney’s office’s Land Use Team.  Prior to joining Carr McClellan, Roop was a member of the Litigation Group at Dechert LLP.  Roop grew up in California’s central valley, and is fluent in Punjabi and basic Hindi. 

Our Estate Planning, Trusts & Wealth Transfer Group has been augmented by the addition of Melissa S. Hung.  Prior to joining Carr McClellan, Melissa was an associate at Clare H. Springs and Associates, specializing in estate planning and taxation.  Melissa is a UC Berkeley grad (even though she grew up in the shadow of Stanford’s Hoover Tower), with a law degree from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.  She also acquired an LLM in Taxation from NYU and worked as a legal intern in Tokyo, Japan.  Melissa is an accomplished musician having played professionally as an Oboist and English Horn player.  Melissa is comfortable communicating in conversational Mandarin Chinese. 

We continue to believe that our firm’s ability to provide legal services of the highest quality and value is based on having the best and the brightest lawyers dedicated to that goal.