SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 – Broady Hodder, who served for nearly a decade as in-house counsel at Clearwire Corp., and Andrew Schultheis, who was until recently the general counsel at Sterling Financial Corp., have joined Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as partners in the firm’s business and tax practice.
"We are very pleased to be able to expand our service with these two outstanding public company GCs," said Dave Baca, managing partner of Davis Wright Tremaine. “Broady and Andrew both bring significant experience advising and executing on the full range of corporate strategic matters—from governance to securities law to M&A. We look forward to putting their considerable skills to work for our corporate clients throughout the Northwest."
Hodder has spent the past nine years navigating the intensely competitive, fast-growing, and capital-intensive telecommunications industry. At Clearwire, he served as senior vice president and general counsel, managing all legal and regulatory compliance functions and serving as a key member of the senior executive team, as Clearwire grew from a small private company into a public company with a multi-billion dollar market capitalization. Clearwire was acquired by Sprint in 2013.
Prior to joining Clearwire in 2004, Hodder was an associate, and then a partner, in Davis Wright Tremaine’s Portland office.
"I am thrilled to be rejoining the team at DWT," said Hodder, "and I look forward to serving clients old and new."
Hodder received his B.S.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Colorado Boulder and his J.D. from the University of Arizona School of Law. In 2011, he was named a finalist for the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award. He is admitted to practice in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Schultheis joins Davis Wright Tremaine with nearly 20 years’ experience, most recently as executive vice president and general counsel of Sterling, a $10 billion bank holding company, where he was a member of the executive team that led Sterling’s remarkable turnaround. Schultheis was also responsible for enterprise-wide management of legal risk and legal expense, and was centrally involved in the structure, negotiation, and oversight of M&A and divestiture transactions, in addition to corporate governance and fiduciary issues.
Schultheis came to Sterling from the law firm of Witherspoon Kelley, where he worked with a range of public and private companies, including serving as Sterling’s primary counsel. Prior to that, he practiced at Fenwick & West LLP, a Silicon Valley-based law firm. His practice covered a broad array of matters, including corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and regulatory matters.
Sterling merged with Umpqua Holdings Corp. in April of this year.
"Joining Davis Wright is an ideal next step for me," said Schultheis. "Sterling was a longtime client of the firm, so I know the team’s ethics, culture, and strong focus on client success first-hand. I look forward to bringing that focus to clients throughout the Pacific Northwest."
Schultheis received his B.A. in Philosophy from Whitman College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He is admitted to practice in Washington and California.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.