Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, one of Los Angeles’ largest and most politically influential law firms, is scouting sites in Newport Beach and Irvine for the planned opening of its first Orange County office in September.
“OC is a fabulous market,” said Tom Phelps, firm co-founder and an OC resident who until now has commuted to Los Angeles. “It makes eminent good sense for us to establish a footprint here.”
The OC office is set to handle land-use planning and government work, real estate transactions, finance and litigation related to real estate and environmental law. Clients will include county companies as well as municipalities.
“By ‘government practice’ we mean dealing with the county government as well as the governments in Sacramento and Washington,” Phelps said.
Seven attorneys are set to staff the OC office initially, Phelps said.
Aside from Phelps, the OC office’s founding staff roster will include current company partners Scott Baugh, Mark Johnson, John Grosvenor, Donald Brown and Henry Wang. All work out of Los Angeles now except Baugh, who is based in Sacramento and resides in Huntington Beach.
Baugh, who was Republican leader in the state Assembly from 1999 to 2000, joined Manatt Phelps early this year. The news raised eyebrows, since the firm has been known as a Democratic Party bastion.
Among his many party activities, founder Chuck Manatt is former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was co-chairman of the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign. He was U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 1999 to March 2001.
Baugh’s hiring was a signal that the firm was seeking to extend its reach in GOP circles, as well as in OC, where it long has had clients.
This week the firm is expected to name OC Building Industry Association chief executive Christine Diemer Iger as the seventh member of the new OC office.
“OC is the 30th-largest economy in the world,” Baugh said. “The opportunities for our company here are endless.”
As Assembly leader, Baugh served as point person on health insurance and transportation for the Republican caucus.
As an assembly member representing Huntington Beach from 1995 to 2000, Baugh supported bills that dealt with cleaning up urban runoff and inland waterways, restructuring grand jury proceedings, implementing the statewide Smog Check II program and encouraging the purchase of health insurance by the self-employed.
Baugh specializes in government practice and corporate dispute resolution, and has experience in state government and legislative affairs, concentrating mostly on transactional, transportation, housing, environmental and educational issues.
Johnson focuses on environmental, construction and real estate litigation.
Grosvenor covers business transactions in the healthcare industry, finance, securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions, and legislative and regulatory issues affecting businesses. He also has business management experience in multimedia applications and telecommunications services, including telemedicine.
Brown specializes in litigation relating to banking and financial services, real estate, insurance and intellectual property.
Wang’s focuses include first-party bad-faith insurance litigation and general business litigation.
“We expect to be in an expansion mode from the time we open the doors,” Phelps said.
Tom Phelps and Chuck Manatt founded the firm 37 years ago to represent the banking sector. Last year the company recorded $101.6 million in revenue. Manatt employs 226 attorneys firmwide and also employs full-time lobbyists.
Manatt, Phelps & Philips has offices in Sacramento, Palo Alto, Monterey, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. n
