Robert A. Curtis
Partner
Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, LLP
Costa Mesa
We plan to both innovate and adapt. As trial lawyers, we are always looking for ways to innovate and stay on top of the latest trial presentation software and equipment to make our trials impactful and easier for the jury to understand our clients’ position. As a small firm, we also are constantly adapting by staying on top of emerging areas of the law and focusing our efforts on protecting clients and consumers in these areas.
Looking forward in 2016, we see healthcare law and [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] litigation as two emerging areas for class-action litigation due to the complexity surrounding healthcare plans and coverages and ERISA plans. They are ripe for abuse by companies seeking to take advantage of the unwitting public. Consumers often don’t realize when they are being overcharged with respect to their healthcare plans and coverages and their ERISA plans.
Alan Greenberg
Managing Partner
Greenberg Gross LLP
Costa Mesa
As a cutting-edge firm focused exclusively on high-end litigation, Greenberg Gross has innovation in its DNA. One example: To attract the most talented lawyers and staff to join the firm, we are among the highest paying law firms in the entire country. From its inception in 2013, our lawyers have earned as much here in Orange County as their counterparts do at the top Wall Street firms.
Another innovation is our planned installation in the fall of a mock courtroom in our offices on the 17th floor of the Center Tower. The courtroom will enable us to conduct mock trials on-site, giving our clients an advantage in preparing for trial and our attorneys the opportunity for training to be the very best in the courtroom.
Another innovation is our participation in the arts, not as a pastime, but as part of the firm’s core values. We believe the legal profession can learn a lot from the arts both in terms of the creative process and how to communicate effectively. As part of the firm’s commitment to the arts, it’s launching a lecture series, inviting the nation’s top cultural thinkers to Orange County. We also work closely with the Pacific Symphony, and two of our partners serve on its board in planning events to support the arts.
We are extremely pleased this year to add Howard M. Privette as a partner. Previously at Paul Hastings LLP in Costa Mesa, he’s a nationally recognized trial attorney with a string of notable successes in securities litigation.
In the year ahead, we will continue to grow the firm by bringing in the best and the brightest.
More generally, we expect 2016 to be a year of continued growth for the United States and in particular for Orange County, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. We have faith in this country, and especially the people of Orange County, to continue to innovate and compete in the global economy.
B. Shayne Kennedy
Managing Partner
Latham & Watkins
Costa Mesa
Latham’s success in Orange County is rooted in the diversity of our practice, representing a healthy mix of local, national and international companies in transactional, litigation and regulatory matters. We will continue to grow through an unwavering commitment to client service, which is premised on our strength at developing a deep understanding of our clients’ particular business goals and identifying and implementing solutions to their most critical legal issues. Each client’s needs are different, and we innovate by developing novel deal structures or litigation arguments to address these individual needs, and by applying technologies and other tools that help make our work more efficient and cost-effective.
We expect 2016 will be an interesting and exciting year. While presidential elections have not typically had a direct impact on law firms in general, they do have a wide and varied impact on the economies and industries in which our clients operate. While it is impossible to predict those impacts and their effects on our various clients, we are fortunate to have a broad and diversified practice that allows us to adapt and respond quickly to the opportunities or challenges they present. These characteristics have allowed us to traverse the ups and downs of particular economic cycles and have served us and our clients well over the 80-plus years we have been in business.
Layne Melzer
Incoming Managing Partner
Rutan & Tucker
Costa Mesa
Rutan takes a highly entrepreneurial and client-centric approach to legal services. This in turn drives innovation in response to client needs and competitive forces.
We see significant growth potential in the IP [intellectual property] arena. We have continued to add talent to our existing IP practice, so much so that this year we have made our IP practice group a separate department.
At the same time, we are extending into new practice areas, like cyber security, while creating practice groups that combine areas of legal expertise to integrate vertically with client-industries, such as apparel, retail or the building industry.
In 2016, Big Data will continue as an increasingly big challenge for clients and lawyers alike. As a consequence, we expect to devote even greater resources to technology and thought leadership in this area in an effort to reduce our clients’ legal spend and become more vertically integrated in meeting their legal needs.
We have an in-house e-discovery team. Through our ongoing commitment to technology and e-discovery know-how, Rutan is now able to accomplish internally what many law firms outsource, resulting in better control and considerable savings to our clients. We also have developed a robust cyber security and privacy practice focusing not only on litigation-related concerns, but also on risk-prevention strategies and corporate counseling.
We expect 2016 to bring growth in our traditional practice areas. We anticipate continued strength in real estate transactional work and corporate M&A deal flow.
In anticipation of the ongoing expansion of our corporate finance practice, we will be opening an East Coast office to be closer to capital sources and clients. With the demand for housing, along with public services, natural resources and infrastructure, expected to increase in 2016, our land use and government/regulatory law practice, which has a statewide footprint, anticipates a busy year. Likewise, we anticipate continuing our pioneering legal work assisting in the creation of public-private partnerships for construction and development of public infrastructure and energy projects.
Steven Nataupsky
Managing Partner
Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP
Irvine
At Knobbe Martens, we are committed to continuing to provide our clients with a complete spectrum of intellectual property services. These services go beyond the acquisition of patents, trademarks and copyrights to include all aspects of litigation, post-grant review, intellectual property portfolio strategy and due diligence. In addition to covering the breadth of intellectual property legal disciplines, our attorneys continue to possess deep technical and business knowledge related to our clients’ innovations and fields of interest.
In 2016, we will: continue to invest in lawyers and scientists on the cutting edge of science and technology innovation, paralleling that of our clients; continue providing thought leadership related to the development of intellectual property laws and how they affect our clients’ businesses; and invest in technology to best serve our clients.
Traditionally, presidential election years do not yield substantial legislative change. We do not anticipate any major legislative reforms or initiatives in 2016. We anticipate, however, that the U.S. courts of appeal and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court will likely consider a number of cases that have the potential to clarify intellectual property law and how it affects companies worldwide. We will continue to closely monitor such cases and advise our clients appropriately.
Sean O’Connor
Managing Partner
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Costa Mesa
In 2015, the Orange County office added two partners and three associates to our corporate department. Building on the significant growth of our corporate practice group in 2015, our strategic plan calls for continued corporate expansion in Orange County and firmwide. More than ever, we are looking to provide clients with innovative solutions that leverage our capabilities and expertise through technology, as well as alternative staffing and fee arrangements.
Following a tremendous 2015 that included 10% growth in both revenue and attorney headcount, we fully expect similar growth this year in line with our consistently positive year-over-year performance and expansion.
Gordon Schaller
Managing Partner
Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP
Irvine
Clients are at the heart of our law practice, and we will continue to add more flexibility in how we serve them. This includes billing arrangements, communications, and how our lawyers collaborate to reach the best solutions for clients.
For more than 30 years, our business model has allowed us to achieve year-over-year profitability through strategic growth and operating efficiencies. We do not plan to grow for growth’s sake in 2016 but seek to grow in strategic areas with the right people through lateral hiring.
Because the economic outlook for 2016 is uncertain, we anticipate an increase in broken contracts, resulting in an uptick in commercial contract litigation. Cyber security and the threat of a data breach are a big concern to companies of all sizes, and our cyber security practice will continue to grow. We expect to see more intellectual property litigation in a number of industry sectors.
Industries and areas that are highly regulated, like healthcare, will continue to require legal services, and we anticipate more need for representation for corporate investigations and white-collar crimes due to increased activity by the U.S. Department of Justice and various other federal and state enforcement and regulatory agencies. We also see a high level of need by hotels, retailers and banks regarding requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Inbound foreign investment will increase in commercial development and in high-end residential acquisitions. The real estate market and the tech sector have created unprecedented wealth for some individuals, and they will require sophisticated tax and estate planning.
Bruce Stuart
Founding Partner
Stuart Kane LLP
Newport Beach
We have been fortunate to welcome three new attorneys in the areas of real estate, employment litigation and corporate law over the past five months. Stuart Kane’s focus for 2016 will be increasing the number of attorneys in our firm in response to increased client needs in the specific areas we serve: real estate, employment, litigation and corporate. As a boutique law firm, we have found clients see us as an adaptable alternative or perfect complement to the “big law” firms they may also hire. For us, innovation will continue to focus on offering an experience customized to fit our clients’ needs, including the latest billing technology, communications and delivery of our work product.
When it comes to the legal market, we expect to continue to see large, international firms continuing to grow through mergers and acquisitions. As a result of this consolidation, we anticipate that experienced attorneys looking for a more entrepreneurial, hands-on environment, and clients looking for a more direct, personalized relationship with their counsel, will consider smaller boutique law firms like Stuart Kane.
Our practice area that we expect may be most impacted by the upcoming election is employment. Our employment attorneys proactively work with employers to prepare for recent and potential changes in the law, such as California’s new equal-pay law, the National Labor Relations Board allowing workers to use employer email for union organizing, medical marijuana usage in the workplace, and the complexities of hiring independent contractors.
Mei Tsang
Managing Partner
Fish & Tsang LLP
Irvine
While President Obama openly lauded the FCC’s Open Internet Rules in his 2016 State of the Union address, Internet service providers and special interests are actively chipping away at them through legislative and legal challenges. The number and intensity of these challenges will only increase during an election year, where these issues are not generally political along party lines but can have influences on politicians.
Cyber security businesses and IP will continue to see growth with Obama’s Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan, which will improve cyber security measures taken by federal agencies, and the White House TechHire Initiative, a program providing training to America’s tech workforce.
In 2015, we saw a slowdown of software patent grants as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and patent attorneys struggled to make sense of the new Alice v. CLS Supreme Court case limiting allowable types of software patents. The many district, federal and [Patent Trial and Appeal Board] case decisions since Alice v. CLS have helped patent practitioners better define allowable software patent subject matter, and we expect to see a resurgence of software patent grants in 2016.
Mitch Wexler
Partner
Fragomen Worldwide
Irvine
The Orange County market for immigration/visa/green card services is growing as the area continues to be recognized as a legitimate hi-tech hub. Considering the variety of client types needing our services, we have decided to segment our teams into groupings that more reflect the local market. This allows us to be totally immersed in the needs and wants of each group.
For example, we have what we call an ICU (Individual Case Unit) team that represents individuals, whether they be foreign-national spouses, graduating foreign students, investors, etc. Another team is for emerging-market clients. This team serves startup companies through midcap. Then we have our large-cap team that represent large domestic and multinational companies.
Another innovation we are launching is our “writing team.” There are several visa application types that require extensive writing and explanation. This has proven to be quite an art and specialty skill. We have a dedicated team of writers, including journalism majors, as well as those with other writing and research-intensive degrees. We are fortunate to have the critical mass of employees to assemble this variety of teams within our office. Our head count in Irvine is up to 50.
Our practice is a pretty accurate reflection of the local economy, so we expect 2016 to be pretty robust. We have clients in virtually every sector, and when they hire, there is usually a certain percentage of the additional head count that needs visa work. Another meaningful economic indicator is office rental rates. It has been reported that office space is scarce, resulting in rents going up significantly.
The upcoming election in November is a bit of a wild card. In my opinion, the makeup of Congress will have more of an impact than who the president is. The more conservative members of the “Gang of 8” that hammered out the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill appear now to be backpedaling a bit to show they are strong on immigration. Optics is everything. As is usually the case, we are in a wait-and-see mode.
