(Newport Beach, CA) Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, Orange County's premier law firm, is pleased to announce the addition of five associate attorneys to its corporate and securities, intellectual property litigation and real estate litigation practice areas.

Eve Brackmann, Justin Hughes, Margaret Karakashian, Joseph Mellema , and Jeff Plumer joined the firm in January.

Hughes, Karakashian and Plumer will concentrate their practice in corporate and securities law.  Mellema joins the firm's intellectual property litigation practice and Brackmann joins the firm's real estate litigation practice group.

Hughes participated in Stradling's summer program in  2007 and 2008. In 2009, he earned his J.D. degree from the University of Southern California, where he was awarded the USC Merit Scholarship.

Karakashian took part in Stradling's 2008 summer program before earning her J.D. degree in 2009 from Loyola Law School, where she was named to the Dean's Honor List. Most recently, she worked as a legal extern at the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Plumer  participated in the firm's 2008 summer program. In 2009, he earned his J.D. degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law, where he was awarded the Witkin Award for Academic Excellence in both Federal Income Taxation and International Trade Dispute.

Prior to coming to Stradling, Mellema was an associate at Christie Parker & Hale LLP. There, he prosecuted and prepared patents in the electrical, physics, computer science and mechanical fields. Mellema also litigated patent, antitrust, trademark and domain name dispute resolution lawsuits.

Brackmann was previously, an associate at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, where she handled all aspects of litigation including commercial and real-estate matters.

About Stradling

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth is widely recognized for its practices in corporate and securities, securities litigation, complex business litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, employment and real estate law. The firm has built a solid reputation in the business community for providing the same high level representation as national law firms but with a focus on more responsive, personal and value-driven service.

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth has more than 100 lawyers and counts offices in Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco.