SAN DIEGO, CA – Best Best & Krieger LLP has appointed Arlene Prater to serve as office managing partner of the San Diego office.   Prater will oversee strategic direction, general operations and business development for the San Diego office of BB&K.  The San Diego office has 33 attorneys practicing in various areas of public and private sector law. Prater practices in the firm’s Labor and Employment Group.

Prater succeeds BB&K partner Warren Diven, who served as the firm’s San Diego office managing partner since January 2008.

“We are pleased Arlene has accepted this leadership position,” stated James Gilpin, a partner and member of the executive committee at BB&K.  “Arlene’s management skills combined with her energy and experience are admired by her peers and clients alike.”

Prater joined BB&K in October 1993. She has specialized for many years in providing advice to public and private employers on personnel and labor matters and representing public agencies and private employers in employment law litigation and administrative proceedings.

Before joining BB&K, Prater was a partner at Jennings, Engstrand & Henrikson and was employed with the San Diego County Counsel’s office from 1977 – 1988.

Prater is deeply involved in giving back to the legal industry and San Diego community. She is on the State Bar of California Labor & Employment Section Executive Committee, which educates attorneys and provides a forum for California's labor and employment lawyers regarding labor relations and employment issues. She is also an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association on the Panel of Employment Arbitrators.  Prater regularly conducts human resources training for clients, and she is a frequent speaker at employment law seminars for attorneys and human resource professionals.

She serves on the boards of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, San Diego Botanic Garden, PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and Access to Independence of San Diego.  She also provides pro bono services to various nonprofit agencies in San Diego.

Prater is a resident of Del Mar, Calif.

Best Best & Krieger LLP is a national law firm that focuses on environmental, employment, business, education, municipal and telecommunications law for public agency and private clients. With 200 attorneys, the law firm has nine offices nationwide, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.bbklaw.com