OC’s Biggest Firms Add Attorneys at 6% Rate; Rutan & Tucker Still No. 1
Orange County’s largest law firms added attorneys at a rate more than double the county’s overall job growth rate, according to this year’s Business Journal list of local law offices.
The largest 50 firms grew their attorney ranks by 6.3% in 2000, to 1,851, adding 109 attorneys since January last year.
The list ranks the largest 50 law firms in OC by number of attorneys.
“We saw a lot of growth in the corporate area, especially in small and mid-size companies,” said Clifford Frieden, managing partner of Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker. “In our corporate practice, we were bursting at the seams. Even with the downfall of many dot-coms, there was still a lot of growth in the high technology sector, creating a lot of legal work for us.”
Rutan & Tucker retained the No.1 spot on this year’s list, growing its number of OC-based attorneys by a modest 2% to 125.
“We like to grow at a moderate rate, so as not to overextend ourselves as the economy cools down.”
Frieden said he is seeing more corporate litigation, especially in securities.
“As dot-coms fail you’re going to see investors looking to try and find somebody responsible as they see their investments go south,” he said. “I suspect that sector will be a growth area.”
No.2 Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth of Newport Beach moved up the list from No. 3, adding nine attorneys in OC to bring its total to 113.
“We’re expecting an increase in consolidations, mergers and acquisitions for both the high tech and financial services sectors, which should bode well for us,” said president Nick Yocca. “We also expect a softer market for spin-offs and companies going public.”
James Bear, managing partner at No. 3 Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, reported that his firm is struggling to find lawyers with a strong high technology background.
“The people we employ all have a degree in science or engineering plus a law degree,the supply of those types of people is dwindling,” he said. “Scientists and engineers don’t seem to be going to law school in the numbers that they used to. Those types of people are highly sought after nationwide.”
The Newport Beach company fell one spot this year with 103 attorneys, four fewer than last year.
“Because we have not been able to fill the need in OC, our other offices in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco are expanding more rapidly than our OC operations,” said Bear. “Plus, everyone is a little uneasy about how the tech sector downturn will affect our profession.”
The Irvine office of San Francisco-based Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison was the only new entry among the 10 largest OC law firms this year, charting at No.7, up from No.11 on last year’s list. The company added 17 attorneys in OC to bring its total here to 64.
“Most of the growth in the OC division was in representing technology and emerging growth companies,” said the local office’s managing partner, Kathlene Lowe. “We’re going to continue growing our corporation transactional, intellectual property, litigation and real estate practices.”
The Newport Beach office of No.11 Century City-based Irell & Manella grew its OC staff by 16, more than any other company on the list, to reach a total of 50 OC employees. That was good enough to move the company up six spots from No.17 to No.11.
Partner Richard Sherman expects the company’s growth here to continue.
“We’re not seeing a slowdown in the tech sector,” he said. “Our clients tend to be very aggressive.”
The company’s clients include chip maker Broadcom Corp. and disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.,both Irvine firms. Other major firm clients include Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. and Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard Co.
The Irvine office of Marina del Rey-based Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone posted the biggest percentage drop in OC attorneys on this year’s list with 36 attorneys, a 33% reduction that pushed the firm down 11 spots to No.18.
Three companies returned to this year’s list, including Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue at with 17 attorneys in its Irvine office, five more than the previous year. The firm is the second- largest law firm in the world, according to partner-in-charge Thomas Malcolm. The Cleveland-headquartered company plans significant new hiring of attorneys over the next year in OC, according to Malcolm.
“Intellectual property litigation was our biggest source of growth here,” he said.
Jones Day last year opened new offices in Madrid, Singapore, Houston and Palo Alto.
Newport Beach-based Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger returned at No. 48. The company has 16 attorneys, up from nine last year.
The Irvine office of St. Louis-based Bryan Cave LLP also debuted on this year’s list at No.48, doubling its number of local attorneys to 16 in the past year.
“We’re experienced some very significant growth in our corporate finance group and in our corporate securities practice here in OC,” said resident manager Steven Sunshine, who also manages Bryan Cave’s Santa Monica office.
The company doubled its number of OC attorneys to 16 compared to the previous year. The Irvine office plans to further expand its technology transactions and litigation rosters, according to Sunshine. n
