A senior litigation partner at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth and six other lawyers are leaving the Newport Beach law firm to join a small local office of one of the nation’s largest firms.
Todd Gordinier, who was on Stradling’s executive committee, is heading to Boston-based Bingham McCutchen LLP’s Costa Mesa office, where he’ll be a partner.
James Loss continues as managing partner of Bingham’s OC office.
Jason Anderson and Edward Kim, who worked on Gordinier’s team, also left Stradling to be Bingham partners.
Stradling is Orange County’s third largest law firm and second largest general legal practice with about 100 lawyers.
Four other lawyers are heading to Bingham from Stradling. All specialize in litigation.
Gordinier “won’t be the last person to join us,” said Christopher Hockett, chairman of Bingham’s litigation group. “We intend to grow that office significantly.”
In the next few years, Gordinier said the firm would like to see the office expand to about 35 lawyers. That would rank it at around No. 20 on the Business Journal’s yearly list of law firms.
Gordinier has made a name for himself in business litigation, including defense of brokerages in securities lawsuits. He brings a big-time client list, including Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and Hyundai Corp.
“Todd, Ed and Jason are good lawyers, and we will miss them,” said Don Hamman, a Stradling director. “We sincerely hope this move proves a good one for them as they continue their efforts in broker-dealer arbitration cases, which is not a Stradling focus.”
Stradling works with growing companies on acquisitions, public financing and intellectual property litigation, among other things.
In the 1980s, Gordinier was managing director of national firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in Los Angeles. In 1993 he went to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he rose to co-leader in L.A.
By early 2000, Gordinier headed to Stradling before the technology bubble burst to bolster the litigation practice.
“It just seemed to us that Bingham offers the right mix of a national litigation practice and a commitment to Southern California,” Gordinier said. “Bingham has the strategy to grow down here, but has not done it.”
Expanding won’t come without challenges. OC has several large, national law firms with big operations here, including Latham & Watkins LLP, which has 77 lawyers in Costa Mesa, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP with 71 lawyers in Irvine, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP with 66 lawyers in Newport Beach.
“We face the same competition in every market in which we operate,” Hockett said. “We’re accustomed to it, and we think we do rather well against them.”
Big Combination
Bingham grew in 2002 with one of the larger legal deals in recent years. Boston’s Bingham Dana LLP, a 500-lawyer firm, combined with McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Emerson LLP, a 320-attorney firm with offices in San Francisco, among other cities.
In 2003, Bingham took on L.A.’s Riordan & McKinzie, a 60-lawyer corporate firm that included the Costa Mesa office.
