Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce the arrival of two prominent California-based attorneys who will bolster the firm’s capabilities and presence in the state. Ericka Curls Bartling will join Husch Blackwell as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco Bay Area office, and Andrew J. Demetriou will join the firm’s Los Angeles office as senior counsel. Both attorneys will join the firm’s Healthcare, Life Sciences & Education industry group and its Corporate/M&A practice teams.
For the prior 15 years, Curls Bartling led and managed the law firm she founded, Curls Bartling P.C., where she created a go-to transactional boutique servicing public companies, privately-held businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governmental entities. She has guided clients through virtually every type of transaction, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic collaborations, business formations and reorganizations, commercial contracts, financing, and IT-related transactions.
Curls Bartling has particularly deep experience in public finance, specifically as it relates to the issuance of general obligation bonds, project revenue bonds, and lease revenue bonds. She has been involved in a broad range of financings, including those related to the generation or transmission of power, the provision of water, wastewater, and transportation services, the acquisition and construction of general infrastructure and real property, and the development of affordable housing. She currently serves on the board of directors of Women in Public Finance, Northern California Chapter.
Demetriou is a dean of the healthcare law bar nationally and has served as a business and legal advisor to healthcare organizations for over three decades. He began his career in private practice at a boutique law firm before joining Jones Day in 1985, where he served as a partner for nearly two decades in that firm’s corporate and healthcare practice groups. He joined the partnership of Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright) in 2004 and continued his representation of a wide range of healthcare and corporate clients. He has a long history of service in the American Bar Association, serving as Chair of the Health Law Section in 2007-08 and as a member of the Board of Governors from 2018-2021. He is currently a member of the Council of the ABA Fund for Justice and Education, the ABA’s charitable arm.
In 2012 Demetriou joined Berkeley Research Group (BRG), a leading global consulting firm, as managing director, serving as a strategic advisor to healthcare organizations in the areas of corporate transactions, corporate governance, and professional ethics. For the past seven years, Demetriou has maintained an active private law practice with Lamb & Kawakami LLP.
“I can’t imagine bringing onto our team two lawyers of higher caliber than Ericka and Andy,” said Curt Chase, the head of Husch Blackwell’s Healthcare, Life Sciences & Education industry group. “Their presence, gravitas, and immense skill sets will greatly benefit our clients, many of whom are grappling with key strategic decisions that will shape their organizations for years to come. Ericka’s and Andy’s experience—there’s not much they have not seen—will be invaluable to our clients and our team.”
“To close my law firm after 15 years was not an easy decision to make,” said Curls Bartling. “But as a native Kansas Citian, it’s been exciting to witness Husch Blackwell’s evolution over the past decade into an Am Law 100 firm with a nationwide presence. It has all the things you’d expect of a large law firm—nationally recognized practitioners and a terrific client roster—but the firm’s culture and commitment to client service is uncommon. There is a strong alignment between my own personal values and the firm’s priorities, particularly on the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion. Husch Blackwell’s commitment to DEI is real, and for many of my clients, that commitment is foundational to their business relationships.”
“I am delighted to join Husch Blackwell’s Healthcare team and to help grow the group’s profile in California and across the country,” said Demetriou. “I have many long-term friendships with lawyers there, and the group has an uncommon approach to providing counsel and advice, bringing together incredibly smart people who are also collaborative, client-focused, and practical. In my experience that is a rare and very valuable combination, but Husch Blackwell’s Healthcare group has achieved it.”
These latest additions follow on the firm’s efforts to quickly build its California-based labor and employment law team throughout the first half of 2022. The firm launched its Los Angeles and Oakland offices in April 2021.