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Vorwerck Shutdown Puts Lawyers on Move

Orange County’s legal scene has experienced one of its largest shake-ups in half a dozen years following the dissolution of Orange-based Brady, Vorwerck, Ryder and Caspino.

The second largest law firm in Orange, with 29 area lawyers as of January, announced this month that it was shuttering its practice.

The firm had been in Orange since its 1996 inception and most recently was based at the City Plaza tower, where it had about 70 employees.

Brady Vorwerck ranked as OC’s 30th largest law firm by attorney count, according to the Business Journal’s January ranking. Its focus was business litigation and personal injury defense.

It also had offices in Las Vegas, Denver and Scottsdale, in addition to other locations in California, and had about 60 lawyers in January. Those offices, along with the firm’s City Plaza headquarters, have closed.

Brady Vorwerck is believed to be the largest law office in OC to shutter since 2008, when the Newport Beach office of Morrison & Foerster LLP closed, the firm opting to serve OC clients from its Los Angeles and San Diego offices.

About half of Brady Vorwerck’s locally based lawyers have moved to two firms in Irvine.

Founding partners Gregg Vorwerck and Rob Ryder joined civil litigation firm Wolfe & Wyman LLP, along with seven associates and other professional staff.

The two will each take on the role of partner at Wolfe & Wyman, which has 44 attorneys across its U.S. operations.

The additions will allow Wolfe & Wyman “to leverage and complement existing practice areas—[including] insurance, banking, construction and employment law—and apply that expertise to new practice areas such as retail, hospitality and restaurants,” the firm said.

Also on the move is Michael Caspino, a founding partner of Brady Vorweck.

Caspino joined another Irvine lawyer and hospitality executive, Tim Busch, to form Busch & Caspino, which will focus on business litigation, canon law, corporate real estate, and religious organizations.

Busch, founder of hotel development and management firm Pacific Hospitality Group in Irvine, will serve as chairman of the firm. Caspino was named chief executive and will oversee day-to-day activities.

Busch’s existing law practice, The Busch Firm, is being absorbed by the new venture, which has 32 employees.

Six Brady Vorwerck attorneys and 11 total employees moved to Busch & Caspino.

The dissolution of Brady Vorwerck took root at the beginning of the year when Caspino said he gave notice to the firm’s other partners that he wanted to start his own practice to focus more on religion-related legal work.

“The Catholic Church needs help,” said Caspino, who serves as general counsel to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County. He said he will help the diocese handle business-related issues.

Busch & Caspino’s clients also include JSerra Catholic High School, Marriott International and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The other Brady Vorwerck partners voted to dissolve the practice shortly after Caspino’s announcement, he said.

The other name partners at the firm couldn’t be reached for comment last week.

Litigation Ongoing

A move to offices near Irvine had been expected for Brady Vorwerck, albeit not in the manner announced this month.

In late 2012, the firm announced it was planning to get out of its 10-year lease at City Plaza and relocate to offices closer to John Wayne Airport, citing security concerns and other issues with its landlord, Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties Inc.

At the time, the firm cited concerns it had with people it believed to be employees of the building’s largest tenant, CashCall Inc., saying the people demonstrated a “general lack of overall business decorum,” among other things.

Lawyers for Hudson Pacific said then that there were no security problems, and CashCall respresentatives said the company had no history of causing security problems elsewhere.

Brady Vorwerck had been leasing about 18,000 square feet at the 18-story tower next to the Outlets at Orange shopping center.

Hudson Pacific last year sold City Plaza to a venture headed by Newport Beach-based Greenlaw Partners, but the landlord and its legal representatives at Century City-based Freedman + Taitelman LLP remain in litigation with the law firm.

A decision reached this month sided with Hudson Pacific and calls for Brady Vorwerck to pay about $106,000 in attorney fees.

Caspino said Brady Vorwerck is appealing the decision.

“The battle marches on.”

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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