Orange County and the Stradling law firm have pretty much grown up together.
“Stradling’s fingerprints are on all the public infrastructure that enabled Orange County to become what it is today,” President Brian Forbath told the Business Journal.
The firm, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, says it has helped the business community and companies to thrive over the past half-century. Those five decades include handling the legal aspects of municipal bonds for school districts as well as water and sewer improvements and 73 and 241 toll roads.
Public clients include the cities of Anaheim, Irvine and Newport Beach while the corporate side of the firm counts Western Digital and Edwards Lifesciences.
Stradling also offers a litigation practice that handles white-collar crime, employment, securities litigation, intellectual property and business disputes across the country.
“We’ve grown exponentially along with Orange County,” Forbath told the Business Journal on March 7. He is also the head of the firm’s public finance department.
In the past year, the growth included a 9% increase in the number of OC attorneys to 72.
No. 8 on Business Journal List
Stradling will be planning various events later in the year, including client and charity outreach, closer to its 50th anniversary month in October.
The firm, officially known as Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth LLP, is No. 8 on this year’s Business Journal list of the largest law firms in OC (see list, page 30).
Stradling has been representing the city of Anaheim regarding the $4 billion-plus OCVibe project.
“There are still lots of projects to do in Orange County. However, there’s not as much undeveloped land left,” according to Forbath.
Growth has meant looking for new horizons as a regional firm.
“We’re expanding across the borders,” Forbath says. “We’re no longer just the Orange County firm that we once were.”
Washington, Nevada, Texas
The firm works on infrastructure finance up and down the state, and other states such as Washington, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, and Hawaii.
“In order to be successful, you can’t be stuck within your geographic boundaries as a law firm,” says Forbath.
While the firm’s base is in Newport Beach, its 12 offices include Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle.
Stradling has 110 attorneys firmwide.
Ryan Wilkins, chairman of the corporate practice, notes the firm’s stable of publicly listed corporate clients.
In addition to Western Digital and Edwards Lifesciences, they include Ugg parent Deckers Brands, crypto miner MARA (formerly Marathon Digital), Tandem Diabetes Care and software company AppFolio, according to Wilkins.
Stradling sees organic growth and Wilkins says it has no interest in a merger or combination with another law firm.
