The biggest law firms in Orange County grew their workforces in 2014, breaking a two-year streak of cuts in attorney headcount.
This week’s Business Journal list features 78 law firms with headquarters or significant operations in Orange County, ranking them by the number of local attorneys as of December. It includes other data, such as firmwide attorney totals and the overall number of OC employees, accounting for paralegals and administrative staff, though those figures don’t affect the rankings.
This year’s is the longest yet, thanks to increased research capacity and general growth in the firms to make the cut of a minimum of 10 lawyers.
The firms on the list combined for 2,488 lawyers, an increase of 83, or 3.2%.
That followed a 2% cutback last year after a 1% drop the year before.
Rankings changed little at the top of the list.
• Irvine-based Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, which again tops the list, had 169 lawyers here, down by six, or 3.4%. The firm has more than 460 employees in Orange County, including paralegals, staff and other workers. Firmwide, Knobbe Martens has seven offices and 277 attorneys, up 1.5%.
• Rutan & Tucker LLP is No. 2, with 136 lawyers here, down by two. It has 260 employees in OC, down by eight. The Costa Mesa-based firm has a smaller office in Palo Alto with 10 attorneys.
• The Costa Mesa office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP inched up one spot to No. 5, with 10% growth to 67 attorneys. It passed Latham & Watkins LLP, whose local attorney headcount decreased by about 5% to 62.
Latham is the second-largest law firm with a presence here when counting the companywide number of lawyers. It has 2,100 across 32 offices.
Jones Day is the largest, with 2,600 lawyers, up by 4% year-over-year. It had 46 lawyers in OC, down 8% and good for the No. 12 spot.
• The Costa Mesa office of Paul Hastings LLP had 39 attorneys, up by six. The increase, which moved it up four spots to No. 20, included two litigation partners who recently moved from other Paul Hastings offices. Howard Privette moved from Los Angeles, and Christopher McGrath joined from San Diego.
“We’ve grown immensely as a firm, and we’re looking strategically,” said Privette, who’s an OC native.
He worked in L.A. for about 12 years.
“We’ve identified Orange County as a growing and incredibly diverse economy. There’s a lot of international flavor in terms of clients here and foreign clients who are doing business in Orange County. It’s really an investment that the firm is making in terms of growing the office and moving people here.”
The OC office, which is Paul Hasting’s second oldest location next to its headquarters in Los Angeles, was remodeled last year and features “lots of glass, modern fixtures and collaborative work spaces,” according to Panteha Abdollahi, who serves as of counsel.
“The remodeling of the office was a huge investment,” Privette said. “In large part, this move, this change in the style, is kind of a leader for the rest of the firm. The thought is that as we grow and move other offices, renew other leases, we would be transplanting this open style to our other offices in L.A. and New York and so on. In that sense, OC is the trendsetter.”
• Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP added 10 lawyers here over the past year, more than any other firm on the list, up 42% to 34. The gains pushed it up 14 spots to No. 26. The firmwide number for the Los Angeles-based firm totaled 351 after one was added.
• Newport Beach-based Bremer, Whyte, Brown & O’Meara LLP added eight lawyers last year, for a 22% increase to 45. The gain moved the firm up six spots to No. 13. It has 83 employees overall in OC, down by 51%.
Bremer Whyte, which has nine offices, grew about 26% to a total of 106 lawyers.
• No. 16, Gordon & Rees LLP, grew its Irvine office by 17% to 41 lawyers. The San Francisco-based firm has 599 lawyers across 33 offices.
• Fisher & Phillips LLP was among the handful of entries with no change in the number of attorneys in their OC offices. It’s No. 29, with 32 lawyers here. The firm said it is looking to hire two lateral attorneys and is expecting two recent graduates to join this year.
James McDonald, managing partner of its Irvine office, said he’s expecting a busier year, thanks to a new California law that requires employers to provide paid sick leave to employees.
“All employers, regardless of size, are going to have to give at least three days of sick leave per year for employees, full time, part time or temporary,” McDonald said of the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, which takes effect July 1.
“And the law requires certain record keeping to be done every pay period,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge for many employers to comply with the new statute. Many employers already provide paid sick leave to some employees, but not necessarily to part timers. This is going to change that. Some employers have paid time-off policies that combine vacation and sick leaves. This law brings complications to those kinds of plans.”
• Firms that cut their OC lawyer totals included Irell & Manella LLP, which had a 13% drop to 47 lawyers in its Newport Beach office. The decrease pushed the firm down two spots to No. 11. L.A.-based Irell has 192 lawyers overall, down 2% year-over-year.
• Bryan Cave LLP fell eight spots to No. 31, with 30 lawyers in its Irvine office, down by 12%. The St. Louis-based firm had a 4% decrease overall in the past year to 1,052 lawyers throughout its 26 offices.
This week’s list had 12 newcomers. Four of them made the list by growing past the minimum number of lawyers over the past year.
• Those included No. 70, Fish & Tsang LLP, which added three attorneys here for a total of 12. The Irvine-based intellectual property law firm opened its second office last year, in Redwood City, housing three attorneys.
• Brown Rudnick LLP, which debuted at No. 52, added eight lawyers to its Irvine office for a total of 18, registering the biggest percentage growth on the list. The Boston-based law firm grew 8% overall to 224 lawyers.
• Newport Beach-based One LLP, which debuted at No. 58, grew its local office by 60% in the past year for a total of 16 lawyers. The firm, which focuses on intellectual property and entertainment, has two other offices that together account for 10 lawyers.
