Newport Beach-based law firm Newmeyer & Dillion LLP has expanded into Nevada to serve existing clients there and to tap potential new business.
The new office in Las Vegas also is expected to bring Newmeyer & Dillion—a firm largely known for its real-estate focus—an opportunity to “diversify our business base” and grow its other areas of practice, including corporate finance, business transactions and litigation, according to Nathan Owens, who recently moved from Orange County to head the Nevada office as managing partner.
It’s the first out-of-state office for Newmeyer & Dillion and could be a precedent to expansions in other states, according to the firm.
Newmeyer & Dillion is among the largest law offices in OC, with 52 lawyers here. That’s good for a No. 11 ranking on the Business Journal’s annual list, published in January. It has another office in Walnut Creek, where it houses 10 attorneys.
“We have two attorneys in the Vegas office to start … and we anticipate the office growing over the next couple of years to somewhere between eight and 10 attorneys,” said Owens, who has hired an associate to join the new office. The pair currently finds extra support from a couple of lawyers in the Newport Beach office who are also licensed in Nevada.
Clients’ Requests Needs
“[Our] decision to expand into Nevada was driven by our existing clients’ requests and needs,” Owens said, adding that the firm has clients who have been building in the Las Vegas and Reno markets for more than a decade.
“They have for a long time asked us to open an office in Vegas to serve them there,” he said. “And we’ve considered it for a number of years. But I think for one reasons or another, it never was quite right for us to make the move. … We decided about a year ago that it seemed like a right time.”
Newmeyer & Dillion expects to gain from what appears to be a steady economic recovery in Nevada, which was particularly hard hit during the recent recession but employment and home prices have recently picked up.
“Our clients and other Nevada businesses are taking advantage of these market trends and increasing their operations in Nevada,” Owens said. “This office gives us a bigger footprint to better serve our existing and future clients.”
The firm also looks to gain from the aftermath of recent tax hikes in California that took effect at the beginning of the year. The hikes have made states with relatively low rates—including Nevada, which has no personal income tax and a $200 corporate license fee in place of a business tax—look more attractive.
Increased state taxes in California have been a subject of concerns and projections that residents and businesses would move away, looking for locations that are more business-friendly or have lower or no state income tax.
Taxes
“That’s sort of the water-cooler talk at this point,” Owens said. “I can say that our decision to expand into Nevada was solely driven by our existing clients’ needs. The groundwork to move into Nevada predated the recent increase in California state taxes. But … certainly the tax climate makes Nevada more appealing to California businesses, [as well as] businesses in other states. The reality is that Nevada is primed to make a resurgence, and part of that would be an influx from California. I would anticipate seeing that over the next couple of years.”
Construction Background
Owens has construction experience, which he said brings him a “better perspective” in helping his clients.
He grew up in Orange County working summers at his father’s construction company. He also spent four years as a homebuilder in Hawaii in between stints of his legal career at Newmeyer & Dillion, which he first joined in 2000.
“I was in Hawaii from 2006 to 2009,” Owens said. “Having done construction myself … when a client comes in and tells me a problem, I’m not stuck in a lawyer box.”
