LOS ANGELES, CA -- January 16, 2006 -- Greenberg Traurig LLP has promoted 36 attorneys to shareholders, including two in its Los Angeles office: Jordan D. Grotzinger, whose practice includes commercial and entertainment litigation, and Naoki Kawada, who focuses on corporate and securities law, and heads the L.A. office's Japanese Practice Group.
"Jordan and Naoki have both shown extraordinary dedication and initiative in representing their clients, and maintaining the high quality service on which Greenberg Traurig has built its reputation," said Jeff Scott, co-managing shareholder for the firm's L.A. office. "They have played an important role in helping to expand our business both within the U.S. and in Japan."
Grotzinger, 33, joined the firm in 2001 as an associate. He represents companies and individuals across a wide variety of industries in complex business disputes, and has successfully tried jury and non-jury cases in federal and state courts, as well as arbitrations. His areas of experience include securities and partnership cases, copyright litigation in the entertainment and publishing industries, royalty disputes and business tort claims.
Kawada, 33, joined Greenberg Traurig as of counsel and director of the Japanese Practice Group in the firm's L.A. office in May, 2004. He travels frequently to Japan to service an extensive list of more than 50 Japanese clients, 20 of which he helped establish their U.S. operations.
Grotzinger's significant cases include successfully defending a rap music record label and artist accused of copyright infringement in a two-week trial. He also won an arbitration on behalf of a prominent rock music group in a royalty dispute with a former band member.
Grotzinger graduated from Southwestern University School of Law, and he has a bachelor of arts degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. He and his wife, Kristina Royce, a family lawyer, have one child, age 3.
Kawada has extensive experience counseling Japanese clients at all stages of their corporate lives, from their entrance to the U.S. market to their exit. He has spent most of his career drafting and negotiating various transactional documents on behalf of Japanese clients, including joint ventures, technology transfers, entertainment, foreign investments, franchise arrangements, employment, financing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Previously, Kawada was an associate at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP (formerly Graham & James LLP).
He is a founding member of the Entertainment Platform of Japan, an initiative spearheaded by Japan External Trade Organizations, and serves as chair of a sub-committee on local community relations at the Japan Business Association of Southern California. From April 2003 to March 2005, he also served as vice president of the Japan Business Association of Southern California and chaired its Business Administration Committee.
Kawada obtained his law degree from the University of San Diego Law School. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in economics and Russian from Washington University in St. Louis, and speaks Japanese and Korean in addition to Russian and English. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Bel Air.