Growth was the key word for Orange County law firms over the past year, as Irvine-based Rutan & Tucker boosted its local attorney headcount to take the No. 1 spot in the latest Business Journal rankings.
Rutan Managing Partner Vijay Pai told the Business Journal that top talent
and competitive rates “allow us to work with start-ups and family businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies looking for value from their legal spend.”
Rutan’s local lawyer count rose 7% to 144 as of February, compared to the same month a year earlier.
“Practicing here means being at the center of innovation and opportunity,” Rutan partner Kelly Lucinda Galligan says of practicing law in OC.
Overall, for the 93 firms surveyed, the number of local attorneys grew 5% as of last month compared to the year earlier, coming in at just over 3,100. The number of OC partners climbed 5% as well to 1,410. The firms overall employ 5,844 in Orange County, a 4% increase.
Slide to Second Place
Knobbe Martens, which specializes in intellectual property and technology issues, slipped into second place as its local headcount declined 8% to 130 as of last month compared to February 2024.
“Our business was very strong throughout the pandemic and has remained strong ever since,” Knobbe’s Managing Partner Steven Nataupsky told the Business Journal. “In fact, 2024 was one of the strongest financial years in the firm’s history, building on our growth from previous years.”
Nataupsky added: “Our firm continues to recruit and hire top talent from law schools across the country.”
The local office of Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP came in third with 104 local lawyers, up 5% from the prior year, same period.
FBFK Sees 2025 Expansion
Todd Friedland, a shareholder at FBFK Law, said business litigation is the main factor driving the firm’s local growth, “but our M&A and estate planning practices are also thriving and provide valuable services to our middle market clients.”
FBFK, with its local office in Irvine and headquarters in Dallas, ranked No. 81 as its local headcount rose to 14 from three.
Friedland said that this year the firm will continue to add business litigators with expertise in trade secrets, manufacturing, real estate and shareholder disputes. It also intends to expand its transactional practices through general counsel services, real estate and tax.
Among other notable rankings:
Buchalter in Irvine was ranked No. 11 in size as its OC headcount stayed at 60.
Newmeyer Dillion in Newport Beach was No. 15 as its headcount was steady at 49.
Irvine-based Everett Dorey climbed to the No. 19 position from 35 (see story page 26).
Keller: More Robust Than Ever
Keller Anderle Scolnick in Irvine came in at No. 76 as its local lawyer count rose to 16 from 13.
“Our business is more robust than ever,” Jennifer Keller, one of the nation’s leading trial attorneys. “The $292.5 million-plus jury verdict we recently won in a hotly contested life sciences case for our client Guardant Health has brought in a number of new high-stakes cases.” (See story, page 24)
She added: “Currently we represent an AmLaw 50 firm on a $2.2 billion dollar claim against it — and have a plaintiff case worth maybe $100 million against another AmLaw 50 firm.”
AmLaw denotes some of the largest law firms in the U.S.
Keller points out that OC is “big enough to host major, complex cases, has a vibrant business community with a burgeoning tech industry and has a more collegial bar than in many venues.”
