By: Gwenneth O’Hara, Nora Sheriff, Jonathan Kendrick, and Lillian Rafii After extensive collaboration with other state agencies and nearly a year’s worth of public workshops on scoping plan topics and modeling, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update (Draft Scoping Plan) on May 10, 2022...
Buchalter
Main Contacts

Adam J. Bass
ShareholderOffices
Overview
Buchalter is a full-service business law firm that has been teaming with clients for eight decades, providing legal counsel at all stages of their growth and evolution, and helping them meet the many legal challenges and decisions they face. Our clients are engaged in a diverse global economy governed by complex laws and regulations, and they trust us as advisers and business partners because we are involved in their world. They rely on our forward-thinking to help them resolve problems before they arise.
At Buchalter, we practice in that spirit.
Our founding principle-providing our clients with the best business solutions-continues to lead us. We value each client relationship, recognizing that their success is our success. Our overarching goal-getting the best results for the client in a timely manner with sensitivity to cost-has engendered client loyalty, and the firm has grown from that loyalty.
Our lawyers are accessible, resourceful, skillful and adept at responding to change. Our technological capabilities keep case law and rule changes at our fingertips and client communications current, enabling us to create efficient, superior outcomes.
We strongly believe that technology is a tool that furthers the practice of law and have used that belief to develop a cutting edge platform for our firm. We use a meshed (NVPN) network to facilitate work among offices, Cisco VoIP telephony and Video-over-IP conferencing. Sharing documents is seamless through FileSite, which is also utilized to create our Client Extranets. To support our litigation matters, we use Concordance and Opticon, as well as LiveNote and Sanction. Unlike many firms, we have the capacity to process e-Discovery in-house, reducing client costs.
Buchalter lawyers are also active members of the communities in which they live and work. Leadership is a value the founding partners practiced and passed on to the current generation of attorneys. Our lawyers sit on the boards of prominent organizations, teach and lecture frequently. We actively participate in many associations and groups including the Public Law Center, San Francisco Legal Aid Society, Practicing Law Institute, California State Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the LACBA Domestic Violence Project, the Sojourner Center, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Phoenix and many others.
Buchalter is consistently ranked among the leading law firms by Chambers and Partners, Best Lawyers, The Daily Journal and the Los Angeles Business Journal. It is also ranked among the leading firms nationally by American Legal Media and the National Law Journal.
Buchalter's commitment to reflecting and enhancing the rich diversity of the clients and communities in which we practice is more than eight decades strong. The firm's diversity of attorneys and staff provides clients with a greater array of creative talent and alternative thinking, benefiting all.
Year this Office was Established: 1933
Lawyers Worldwide: 300
Areas of Practice
Professionals
Partners

Rick Cohen
Partner EmeritusAssociates

Selena Medlen
Associate General CounselOf Counsel

Russell Allyn
Senior Counsel
Alyssa Brown
Senior Counsel
Efrat M. Cogan
Of Counsel
Jessie Reider Cristo
Senior Counsel
I. Morley Drucker
Of Counsel
Michael B. Fisher
Of Counsel
Michael C. Flynn
Of Counsel
Landon Hardcastle
Senior Counsel
Dana Hobart
Of Counsel
Karl Israelsen
Of Counsel
Gerald "Jerry" Janoff
Senior Counsel
Vanessa LeFort
Senior Counsel
Aaron M. Levine
Senior Counsel
C. Dennis Loomis
Of Counsel
Melanie T. Marcheschi
Senior Counsel
Ashley Milnes
Senior Counsel
Andrea R. Musker
Senior Counsel
Steven M. Nakasone
Of Counsel
Anthony J. Napolitano
Senior Counsel
Philip Nulud
Senior Counsel
Mancy Pendergrass
Senior Counsel
Linda Puertas
Special Counsel
Dallis Nordstrom Rohde
Of Counsel
Nicole Sahagen Schiff
Of Counsel
Scott M. Salomon
Senior Counsel
Jack R. Scharringhausen
Senior Counsel
Stuart A. Simon
Of Counsel
Jennifer A. Smith
Senior Counsel
Pooya E. Sohi
Senior Counsel
Ryan D. Staley
Senior Counsel
Gordon Stuart
Senior Counsel
Kenny Tamura
Senior Counsel
Sarin Tavlian
Senior Counsel
Blake Tengberg
Senior Counsel
Susan P. White
Special Counsel
Michael J. Worth
Senior CounselOther

Robert S. Addison Jr.
Shareholder
Kalley R. Aman
Shareholder
Ronald J. Arias
Attorney
Paul S. Arrow
Shareholder
Farhad Bahar
Shareholder
Jake D. Barney
Attorney
Anita Barooni
Attorney
Adam J. Bass
Shareholder
Ariel A. Berrios
Shareholder
Farah Bhatti
Shareholder
Oren Bitan
Shareholder
Bernard Bollinger
Shareholder
Mark A. Bonenfant
Shareholder
Carly Briggs
Attorney
William S. Brody
Shareholder
Jed Burton
Shareholder
Harry W. R. Chamberlain II
Shareholder
Lee C. Cheng
Shareholder
Arthur Chinski
Shareholder
John Clough
Shareholder
Nicolette A. Cohen
Attorney
Kevin Connelly
Attorney
Robert S. Cooper
Shareholder
A. Blake Cooper
Shareholder
Nicholas Couchot
Attorney
Mark T. Cramer
Shareholder
Jason Croft
Shareholder
Robert J. Davidson
Shareholder
David DeBerry
Attorney
Steven Di Saia
Shareholder
Olivia Durnell
Attorney
Aaron Elster
Attorney
Douglas P. Farr
Shareholder
Eliana A. Fields
Attorney
Joseph K. Fletcher, III
Shareholder
Zachary R. Fountas
Attorney
Trevor B. Fugate
Attorney
Michael Fuoroli
Attorney
Karen N. George
Attorney
Robert S. Gillison
Shareholder
Blake Gillman
Attorney
Gabriel G. Green
Shareholder
Jennifer Guerrero
Attorney
Julian Gurule
Shareholder
Weiss B. Hamid
Attorney
Brian T. Harvey
Shareholder
Harumi Hata
Shareholder
David Hitchcock
Shareholder
Peter V. Hogan
Shareholder
Willmore (Bill) Holbrow III
Shareholder
John L. Hosack
Shareholder
Lauren Jacobs
Attorney
Suzanne Cate Jones
Shareholder
Jeffrey H. Kapor
Shareholder
Matthew W. Kavanaugh
Shareholder
Eric Kennedy
Shareholder
Vahan Khodanian
Attorney
Charles C. Laconico
Attorney
Graham Lambert
Attorney
Lance Lehnhof
Shareholder
Robert Collings Little
Shareholder
Michelle Lopez
Attorney
Cheryl M. Lott
Shareholder
Carol K. Lucas
Shareholder
David E. Mark
Shareholder
Mercedes O. Martin
Shareholder
Danielle Mayer
Attorney
Chadwick McCombs
Attorney
Damaris L. Medina
Shareholder
Robert Miller
Shareholder
William M. Miller
Shareholder
Masahisa Mitsunaga
Shareholder
Joshua Mizrahi
Shareholder
Terese A. Mosher Beluris
Shareholder
Michael Muse-Fisher
Shareholder
C. Tyler Ohanian
Shareholder
Richard P. Ormond
Shareholder
Alexandra Bijan Pakzad
Attorney
R. Chad Pugh
Shareholder
Rajnish Puri
Shareholder
Josiah R. Reid
Shareholder
Joshua M. Robbins
Shareholder
Mary H. Rose
Shareholder
Colin Rowe
Attorney
Keven Rowe
Shareholder
Daniel M. Rygorsky
Shareholder
Joel G. Samuels
Shareholder
Samuel Schleier
Attorney
William Schoenholz
Shareholder
Andrew Selesnick
Shareholder
Matthew L. Seror
Shareholder
Daniel H. Slate
Shareholder
Scott O. Smith
Shareholder
Barry A. Smith, Esq.
Shareholder
Steven M. Spector
Shareholder
Thomas J. Speiss, III
Shareholder
Eliana A. Spero
Attorney
Lawrence B. Steinberg
Shareholder
George Stephan
Shareholder
Stephen J. Strauss
Shareholder
Blake Terry
Shareholder
Joseph Vargas
Shareholder
Leonard (Len) Venger
Senior Advisor
Trevor Vincent
Attorney
Tanya Viner
Shareholder
Michael L. Wachtell
Shareholder
Pamela Kohlman Webster
Shareholder
Jeremy Weitz
Shareholder
Marcus J. Williams
Shareholder
Marlene J. Williams
Shareholder
Michael Williamson
Shareholder
Robert A. Willner
Shareholder
Melissa Wilner
Attorney
Gary Wolensky
Shareholder
Philip J. Wolman
Shareholder
Jeffrey S. Wruble
Shareholder
Daniel H. Wu
Shareholder
Michael Zerman
Shareholder
Nikole K. Zoumberakis
ShareholderArticles
Non-contracted Providers Must Exhaust Administrative Remedies for Medicare Advantage Claims
May 12, 2022 By: Mikhail Parnes and Devan McCarty Health plans routinely assert that contracted providers must appeal underpayments or claim denials according to the health plans’ internal dispute process. The payer/provider agreement itself, or provider manuals that health plans contend are incorporated by reference, are the basis for the appeal requirement. Health plans oftentimes analogize this process to the legal principle of exhaustion of administrative remedies. A health plan’s appeal requirement generally does not apply in instances where the provider does not have a contract with the health plan (i.e., a non-contracted provider)...
Press
Buchalter Relocates to Fox Tower in Downtown Portland
18 May, 2022. Buchalter is pleased to announce its Portland office has relocated to occupy the 15th floor in Fox Tower in downtown Portland. With fifty-five attorneys and support staff, Buchalter moved into 17,000 square feet of the downtown Portland skyscraper on May 17. “We are thrilled to settle in to the iconic Fox Tower in the heart of Downtown Portland,” said Adam Bass, President and Chief Executive Officer of Buchalter. “The space is exactly what we were looking for to accommodate our growth in Oregon, especially in this changing business landscape...
Buchalter Welcomes New Shareholder in Portland
03, May 2022. Buchalter is pleased to welcome new Shareholder Leah Lively in the Firm’s Portland office as a member of the Labor & Employment Practice Group. Lively joins from Davis Wright Tremaine. “Leah is an exceptional addition to the Firm,” said Adam Bass, President and Chief Executive Officer of Buchalter. “She comes to us as a highly recognized and respected attorney in the Labor and Employment space. She will make significant contributions to our practice group, and to the Firm as a whole.” Lively is an experienced litigator and counselor who has tried more than 40 jury trials in multiple states and jurisdictions during her career...
Blogs
Chemical Law & Prop 65 Blog
Chemical Law & Prop 65