NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Andra Barmash Greene has been named managing partner of the Newport Beach office of  Irell & Manella LLP.

 

Greene was appointed by the firm's executive committee to succeed litigator and transactional attorney Richard Sherman, who had served the maximum of two three-year terms.  In keeping with Irell tradition, Greene will maintain her full-time business and intellectual property litigation practice during her tenure as managing partner.

 

Irell established its office in Newport Beach in 1979.  When Greene arrived seven years later, there were only about a dozen attorneys.  Today, 50 of the firm's 220 lawyers are based there, with the rest working in the firm's Los Angeles office.  Greene was the first woman to become partner in Newport Beach, in January 1991.  Irell's bankruptcy and insurance practices are headquartered in Newport Beach, and the office maintains a practice in all disciplines, including litigation, intellectual property, corporate and real estate.

 

Greene previously served on Irell's executive committee.  She has litigation practice and has developed a sub-specialty practice representing law firms in professional negligence actions, partnership disputes, discrimination cases and other matters.

 

She served a two-year term as co-chair of the Woman Advocate Committee of the American Bar Association's litigation section and has written extensively on gender issues within the practice of law.

 

Active in professional organizations within the legal community, Greene is co-chair of the ABA's Raise the Bar Task Force, which is charged with recommending ways to improve the practice of law in large firms.  She is co-chair of the Central District of California Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.  Greene is a past president of the Federal Bar Association/Orange County Chapter.

 

Her pro bono work earned Greene the Wiley Manuel Award from the California State Bar.  A former board member of the Public Law Center, she led an Irell team working with the Center and Orange County's Legal Aid Society to assist low-income residents find new housing after their apartments were condemned by the California Department of Transportation.  Greene also served as the head attorney-coach of the Santa Margarita Catholic High School's Mock Trial Team.

 

Greene graduated from Harvard Law School after receiving her B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

 

Irell & Manella LLP is a full service law firm with approximately 220 attorneys in offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach.