Rutan & Tucker Expands to San Jose
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Orange County’s largest law firm has set its sights on Silicon Valley.
Costa Mesa’s Rutan & Tucker LLP next month plans to open a San Jose office,its only one outside of Orange County. The move aims to give Rutan a beachhead into the ultra-competitive Bay area legal market.
The San Jose office was spurred in part by William Eliopoulos, a partner at the new office who worked at Rutan as an associate in Orange County before moving to Northern California in 1985.
“William kept in touch with us and had joked about setting up a Rutan office in Northern California,” said Jeffrey Oderman, Rutan’s managing partner. “It came to pass that he was looking for another home, and we were at a point in our evolution where we felt we really needed to make that move.”
John Antracoli will be a partner at the San Jose office with Erin-Leigh Henderson joining as an associate.
The three lawyers previously were with San Jose-based Bergeson Eliopoulos LLP, specializing in construction and real estate litigation. They are bringing all of their clients with them to Rutan.
Those clients include Watsonville-based Granite Construction Co., San Jose-based Rosendin Electric Inc. and the San Francisco office of French advertising firm Publicis Groupe SA.
Eliopoulos said the departure from Bergeson was amicable and that he had been in talks with Rutan for several months.
“We were looking for a statewide platform to provide fuller service to our construction and real estate clients,” he said. “Rutan provided a good fit.”
Rutan has no immediate plans to open any additional offices, Oderman said. The firm does plan to grow the new San Jose office, he said.
“We do a lot of work in the Bay area, so the San Jose office is a logical extension,” Oderman said. “How soon and how fast we grow that office depends on the opportunities. We would not be doing this with the idea that we’re just going to stick with three construction litigators in Northern California.”
Possible new practice areas for the San Jose office include intellectual property, land use and corporate work, Oderman said.
