Tracy Warren, Buchalter (Courtesy photo)

Buchalter announced the launch of a new outpost in San Diego this week, giving it six California locations and eight offices nationwide.

The firm said Monday that the San Diego office would initially be home to eight lawyers spending all or part of their time there. Tracy Warren, who joined Buchalter in February from Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stawart's San Diego office, is serving as the managing shareholder of the new office.

Warren, a former Ogletree partner and part-time sports broadcaster, is currently suing her former firm for gender discrimination. Warren said she shares a similar vision with Buchalter chief executive officer Adam Bass “on growth, building relationships, equity and diversity” as things that are important to her.

“The decision to expand to San Diego was a natural one as the city’s technology, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and health care industries are all booming,” said a statement from Bass. “We look forward to further expanding our presence in San Diego in the near future to meet our clients growing demands for the services we offer.”

In addition to hiring Warren, Buchalter has also added employment attorneys J. Patrick Allen, Brittney Dobbins, Kathryn Fox and Rick Waltman to help grow the San Diego office. Allen also came over from Ogletree in February, and Fox joined this summer from Jackson Lewis. Dobbins and Waltman joined in October from Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani.

“We have every area covered here,” said Warren. “We want to continue to partner with our clients who are national and conduct business in southern California, and we want to be aggressively competing for their businesses while building a very diverse gene, and making sure that our team represents many of our clients and people that we serve."

Warren has represented both national and international clients in employment matters involving single plaintiff and class action defense. she also advises, counsels, trains and litigates in areas including wage and hour compliance, pay equity, sexual harassment, retaliation, terminations and other matters of legal compliance.

The San Diego team also includes Buchalter’s bank and finance of counsel Robert Zadek, who is moving from the firm’s San Francisco office, and Jeffrey P.M. Lewis, a member of the health care and litigation practice groups in the firm’s Los Angeles and Orange County offices. J. Rick Tache, a shareholder in Buchalter’s Orange County office and firmwide co-chair of its intellectual property group, will also split his time between San Diego and other California offices.

“We have been extremely busy since we started in February,” Warren said. “To me, it says there is a great responsiveness in San Diego to wanting a firm of our size and our rates that can fully service our national and regional client base.”

Buchalter, which made a return to the Am Law 200 list this year with a $133 million in gross revenue in 2017, also has offices in Los Angeles, Napa Valley, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. Outside California, the firm has offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Seattle.