Law360 Spotlights Christine Noelle Fitzgerald as New Managing Partner of Los Angeles and Orange County Offices

Christine Noelle Fitzgerald, Real Estate Investment and Finance Lead Partner – West Coast, has been promoted to be the new head of Katten's Los Angeles (LA) and Orange County offices, as spotlighted by Law360. Christine has been with the firm for 28 years and officially starts her new role on January 1.

She succeeds Entertainment and Media Litigation Chair Zia Modabber, who has served as Managing Partner of our California offices since February 2016 and recruited Christine to Katten as a summer associate. After 35 years with the firm, he is going to retire from practicing law and join Signature Resolution as a neutral/mediator.

"I have been with Katten my entire career," Christine told Law360. "It feels like a natural step taking over from Zia, although there are certainly big shoes to fill there. Zia has my utmost respect as an outstanding lawyer [and] as a strong leader of our office for many years, as well as the firm generally. And also, he's a good friend."

"The firm leadership does a good job of reaching out to all the stakeholders, the partners in LA and other places, and talking to them about what they envision in an office managing partner, what attributes they envision an office managing partner to have and also who they think they might be supportive of in that role," Christine added. "After going through that entire process, they ended up narrowing it down to me."

Christine also credited the people at Katten and the relationships she's built. "It's the people … it's the strong existing relationships I have with so many excellent attorneys and business professionals, both in the Los Angeles office and nationwide," she said. "I think it's those relationships that are really going to help ease this transition to office managing partner for me. It's the reason why I've never thought to look to go anyplace else."

Katten Chairman Gil Soffer emphasized Christine's "exceptional judgment, strategic vision and deep experience in real estate finance" that have earned her the respect of both clients and colleagues. "Christy's highly trained understanding of client business needs, combined with her collaborative spirit, will help guide the offices into an exciting new chapter, one for which Zia's leadership helped pave the way," he said.

"Katten Names Real Estate Finance Atty As New Leader In LA," Law360, October 20, 2025