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Nielsen Merksamer is pleased to welcome three new attorneys to its San Francisco Bay Area office, who will provide clients valuable experience and skills across key practice areas.

James Barolo is our newest associate.  Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Barolo represented corporations and non-profits in complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts at two prominent law firms. He has held positions with presidential, state legislative and U.S. congressional campaigns and offices. Mr. Barolo received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Law Review and served as co-president of the school’s Lambda Law Alliance. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a degree in political science. Mr. Barolo advises clients on election law, initiatives and referenda, related political compliance, and he practices civil litigation relating to voting rights, elections, constitutional law, and government regulations.

Mike Columbo has joined us from the Federal Election Commission, where he served as counsel to a Commissioner and, as a staff attorney in the Enforcement Division, earned the FEC Distinguished Service Award.  Mr. Columbo has extensive experience with the FEC’s enforcement process and operations over a nine year career at the agency.  His previous positions in public and private practice include white collar criminal defense and criminal prosecution at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.  He received his law degree from George Washington University cum laude and majored in international studies at Vassar.  He recently published an article on regulatory agency law in the Harvard Business Law Review.  Mr. Columbo focuses on political law compliance and PAC administration and advice, representation and enforcement defense with regard to ethics agencies, and administrative law.

Amy Frenzen will join the firm in August.  Ms. Frenzen most recently worked in commercial regulatory affairs for a major biotech company.  Prior to that, she was an experienced litigator at a national law firm with a focus on federal agency regulatory processes and managing complex disclosures across multiple jurisdictions. Ms. Frenzen attended Sonoma State for her undergraduate degree in Political Science and the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she graduated cum laude.  Ms. Frenzen will join our national political law compliance practice, focusing on lobby, campaign finance and government ethics matters, and will also bring perspective to our government law practice in health care.

Please visit our website at www.nmgovlaw.com for more information about our talented team of government, election and political attorneys, professionals, researchers and reports specialists, our practice areas and other news and publications.