Co-founder of Endispute (now merged with JAMS) John Bates Jr. has assisted his alma mater, Santa Clara Law, in creating the new position of director of conflict resolution programming. The law school has also created the John B. Bates Jr. Dispute Resolution Award, which will recognize a graduating law student’s accomplishments and service to the field. Sideman & Bancroft brought on Ian Boyd as partner in the firm’s intellectual property group in the San Francisco office. Boyd previously was a partner at Siskind Boyd. Also joining the San Francisco office are family law attorney Diana Leonida as senior associate and intellectual property attorney Anna Chang as associate. Michael Didiuk has joined Perkins Coie as partner in the investment management practice group. Didiuk will be based in San Francisco and previously was an attorney at the SEC. Injury Law Group will open a new office in San Diego’s North County. Currently, the firm has two other offices in San Diego. The firm also announced it will expand its federal court practice department. Sharlene Koonce joined Fisher Phillips as associate in the San Francisco office. Koonce previously worked at Porter Scott Law Firm and served as law clerk for the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office. Allen Matkins brought on Richard Horvath, Jr. as securities and corporate governance litigation partner in the San Francisco office. Most recently, Horvath was at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. McGuireWoods has appointed Hamid Namazie the managing partner of its downtown Los Angeles office. Namazie’s practice focuses on representing banks, institutional lenders, companies and hedge funds. Mintz Levin’s Los Angeles office will expand in Century Plaza Towers, doubling in size on the 31^st floor. The office has increased from three to twelve attorneys in two years. Margo Parks joined the Western States Petroleum Association as California policy advocate manager in Sacramento. Parks had been an associate lobbyist at Political solutions. Houston firm Patterson + Sheridan has opened an office in San Diego. The intellectual property firm also has an office in San Jose. Associate Ankur Garg and Of Counsel Nick Transier will lead the new office, along with associate Sepp Zangeneh. Michelle Rubalcava will join Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross and Leoni’s Sacramento office as senior counsel. Rubalcava has served as a legislative advocate for Los Angeles County and healthcare attorney during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati will promote 15 attorneys to partner in 2018 including Adam Bloom, Shannon Delahaye, Jennifer Knapp, John McGaraghan, and Matthew Wiltermuth in Palo Alto; Matthew Bresnahan in San Diego and Los Angeles; and Becki DeGraw, Wendy Devine, Brandon Gantus, and Derek Liu in San Francisco.