Pillsbury Firm Chair Jim Rishwain to Receive Pepperdine Law School Distinguished Alumni Award May 20

"I am very honored to be the 2011 recipient of the Pepperdine University Law School Distinguished Alumni Award," said Rishwain. "I view the education I received at Pepperdine as crucial in not only helping teach me to think like an attorney, but also in providing a strong foundation of practicing with purpose and at a high level of integrity."

As Firm Chair, Rishwain's primary responsibility is to execute the firm's strategic plan and policies established by the Pillsbury board, which he chairs. He is the board's key adviser, the top executive in the Pillsbury leadership, and its chief visionary, decision-maker, and communicator.

Since being elected Firm Chair in 2006, Rishwain helped improve firm profitability with profits per equity partners surpassing $1.0 million for the first time 2010. He has overseen the launch of the firm's Superior Client Service program, which establishes 10 standards that all attorneys are required to meet. Under his watch, Pillsbury has also expanded its international reach, opening an office in Shanghai in 2008. Rishwain has lead the way to help the firm better align its industry focus with its clients' needs and the firm's capabilities. At the same time, the firm has developed a more strategic way to add value to its clients through focus teams centering its attention on thought leadership and emerging substantive growing areas. Finally, the firm has built greater profile in the industries and markets its serves as a market-leading firm in sectors from energy and technology to financial services and real estate. The firm now has heightened its position with 47 practices and 117 individual rankings in Chambers USA and 53 practices recognized, including 27 Tier 1 rankings, in Best Lawyers/US News World Report.

His many notable achievements within his real estate practice include serving as lead counsel for SBE Entertainment/SBE Hotel Group in a variety of investment and development projects. He conducted the financing and ongoing equity investment negotiations of the Beverly Hills Le Meridien Hotel in Los Angeles and secured the $800 million acquisition and financing and multi-billion-dollar redevelopment of the Sahara Hotel and Casino for SBE Hotel Group. He was also lead counsel to the Los Angeles Unified School District on a nearly $1 billion project of ongoing public improvement.

Rishwain was named to Who's Who in L.A. Law by the Los Angeles Business Journal and was California Lawyer's 2005 Attorney of the Year. In 2009, he was named to The Los Angeles Daily Journal's Managing Partner A-List. He is consistently ranked as a top real estate attorney by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America.

A graduate of UCLA, Rishwain received his J.D., cum laude, from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1984. During law school, he served on the Moot Court Honor Board and was elected Note and Comment Editor at Pepperdine Law Review. In 2010, to acknowledge the value and importance of a Pepperdine Law School education and in honor of the 140-year-old firm he leads, Rishwain founded the Pillsbury Scholarship which is awarded to a second or third year student ranked within the top 10 percent of his or her class.

In receiving his award as a Distinguished Alumni, Rishwain will also make a short address to Pepperdine law school graduates during commencement.

Past recipients of the Pepperdine Law School Distinguished Alumni Award include André Birotte (JD '91), United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Montgomery "Monty" F. Moran (JD '93) president and COO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Raymond Boucher (JD'84), who negotiated the World's Highest Payout for Victims of Clergy Abuse, Geoffrey Palmer (JD'75), who established Geoffrey Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law, and Lisa Stern (JD'83) who successfully won her suit against European insurance company, Generali, to secure insurance claims on behalf of her grandfather, a victim of the Holocaust.

About Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Pillsbury is a full-service U.S. law firm with international reach. Our lawyers represent some of the world's most successful companies and organizations in the energy and natural resources, financial services, real estate and construction, and technology sectors. In addition to Pillsbury's industry focus, we help clients stay abreast of new opportunities or potential risks through issue-specific multidisciplinary teams centered on emerging legal and business trends.

Pillsbury also provides clients, corporate executives and journalists with the latest insights and analysis through a wide variety of thought-leadership offerings, including industry working groups, Emerging Trends Q&As, case studies, bylined articles, video content, client alerts, practice newsletters, surveys, and industry-related blogs. For more, visit www.pillsburylaw.com.