COSTA MESA, Calif., January 25, 2010 – Rutan & Tucker, LLP, California’s largest full-service law firm based in Orange County, has announced that James Clough has joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate Section.
Clough is a highly regarded corporate securities attorney with more than 30 years of experience representing Fortune 1000 companies, middle market companies, emerging growth companies and entrepreneurs in complex transactions. He has extensive experience, in particular, in venture capital and private equity; mergers and acquisitions; and licensing, joint ventures and corporate partnering. He also provides general corporate representation and counseling. Clough previously served as general counsel of Answer Financial Inc., a large online insurance agency and portfolio company of the $16 billion hedge fund, Elliott Associates LP. Answer was sold to White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. (NYSE: WTM), the parent of Esurance, in 2008.
For many years, Clough was a partner of the global law firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, serving as chair of the Corporate Department of the Orange County office and as a founding partner of the Silicon Valley office. He began his career with Wall Street law firm Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine. Clough has an LL.M. in Corporate Law from New York University School of Law, and a J.D. from Albany Law School of Union University. He received his undergraduate degree from Siena College.
A frequent lecturer, Clough recently presented on the panel on “Ethics in Investigations: The Perils of In-House Counsel Standing Between the Government and Their Company,” Association of Corporate Counsel, San Francisco (January 2009); the panel on "Securities Offering Reform and the General Counsel as Gatekeeper," Bay Area General Counsel Group, San Francisco (March 2007); and the panels with Kevin Ryan, then U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, on "Corporate Governance," National Hispanic Bar Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco (September 2006) and on “Government Investigations," Association of Corporate Counsel Spring MCLE Conference, San Francisco (March 2006). He was a contributing author to the American Bar Association's February 2005 Comment Letter to the SEC on Securities Offering Reform, Release No. 33-8501 (November 3, 2004).
Clough is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law, Committee on the Federal Regulation of Securities, Mergers and Acquisitions Committee and Subcommittee on Securities Registration; The State Bar of California Business Law Section and the Association for Corporate Growth, Los Angeles and Orange County Chapters.
“We are delighted to have James join us as a partner in our Corporate Section,” said Ski Harrison, managing partner of Rutan & Tucker, LLP. “He is an accomplished attorney with a fast growing practice and an excellent track record of handling complex transactions for a broad range of clients, including some of Orange County’s leading companies.”