The National Law Journal's L.A. Legal Pad

Inter-Pacific Bar Association conference comes to L.A.

The Inter-Pacific Bar Association will hold its annual conference in Los Angeles this year.

The four-day conference, "Many Borders, One World," will include more than 800 business and commercial lawyers on current developments in business law and practice in the Asia-Pacific region.

The conference will include a plenary and 39 short (about 20 min) educational programs on a wide range of subjects. The event will take place April 27-30 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

Los Angeles was selected to host the event because of its high concentration of lawyers and thousands of Asian-American lawyers according to the conference's 2008 chair Gerold Libby, a partner at Holland & Knight's Los Angeles office.

Reed Smith wins Urban League award

The Los Angeles Urban League today announced that Reed Smith is a 2007 winner of its Social Responsibility Award for outstanding community commitment to a specific cause or event. 

Over the past four years, Reed Smith’s support for the organization has included a wide range of legal services from employment and taxation to real estate transactions and governance matters. This year, the firm represented the organization in a transaction with the nonprofit New Los Angeles Automotive Training Corporation, a joint venture of Toyota and the organization to provide job training.  When the decision was reached to cease operations, Toyota decided to donate the building and land to the Los Angeles Urban League. Reed Smith stepped in to structure the transaction to protect the League from any environmental liabilities associated with ownership of the site.  A result, the firm created a unique and innovative nonprofit limited liability corporation now owned by the Urban League.

The annual award will be presented Friday at the Urban League’s Annual Membership Meeting and Luncheon set for noon at the Downtown Marriott Hotel.

McDermott lawyers top 100 in L.A.

McDermott Will & Emery’s L.A. office has reached three-digits with the addition of the new fall associate class, Cal Law’s Legal Pad reports. The Chicago-based firm now has more than 100 lawyers in L.A. and  215 in California at its four offices, which include Silicon Valley, Orange County and San Diego too.

“Having more than 100 attorneys here makes the firm more visible in the L.A. basin. It’s not ‘McDermott who?’ anymore,” partner Doug Mancino told the blog’s reporter.

Santa Barbara's Hatch & Parent to merge with Denver's Brownstein Hyatt

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a real estate and regulatory firm based in Denver, will merge with California’s Hatch & Parent on Jan. 1, 2008.

The merged firm would have more than 210 attorneys and policy advisors in a dozen offices, mostly in the Western United States. The firm would be based in Denver and keep the name Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Brownstein Hyatt, with 185 lawyers and legislative consultants, has nearly doubled in size in the past four years. In January, the firm merged with Schreck Brignone in Las Vegas, where it now has an office and clients including MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts Ltd. Founded in 1968, the firm’s practices include real estate, environmental and natural resources, public policy, corporate and litigation. It also has an active lobbying practice in its Washington office. Brownstein Hyatt has another Colorado office in Glenwood Springs near Aspen, locations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M., and a California office in Orange County’s Costa Mesa.

Hatch & Parent, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., has other California offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe. Founded in 1968, the 30-attorney firm began in water law and has branched into other practices including litigation, real estate, land use, trusts and estates and legislative activities. Its clients include American States Water Co., San Diego County Water Authority, South Tahoe Public Utility District and the California cities of Oxnard and Fresno.

As part of the merger, Bruce James, managing partner and chief executive officer of Brownstein Hyatt, would remain in that role at the new firm. Hatch & Parent’s managing partner, Robert Saperstein, would sit on the firm’s executive committee.

- Amanda Bronstad

Luce, Forward donates money to help injuried Marines

Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps announced it will donate $2,500 to support injured U.S. Marines. The firm, in conjunction with CommNexus and a local financial institution, will donate a collective total of $5,000 to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. 

Founded in 2004, the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund provides financial assistance to Marines injured in combat and in training, to help defray expenses incurred during hospitalization, rehabilitation and recovery. It also assists the families of Marines and other service members injured while in direct support of Marine units.

The companies will present their donation to Wendy Lethin, director of community relations for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, at a private event hosted by both organizations at the Miramar Air Show on October 14.

In addition, during the Air Show, computer terminals will be set up in Luce Forward’s corporate chalet on the runway, where those in attendance can learn about the charity and make donations. Last year, at a similar event, the companies were able to raise an additional $17,000 that was then donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. 

Stanford group ranks firms in L.A.

A group of Stanford law students, calling itself Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession, has come out with new rankings on the countries biggest law firms and organized the rankings by city, so students can compare the firms within a specific market and look beyond salary comparisons. 

The survey, using statistics the firms submitted to NALP, looks at firms’ diversity, pro bono and billable hours. Not surprisingly, the survey found that large Los Angeles firms don't represent the community they live in and are disproportionately full of white men. Women make up more than half the population in L.A.--not so in the law firms. None of the the 16 firms studied had more than three black partners. All but one had three or less Latino partners. Despite the fact that black, Latino and Asian Americans collectively make up 69.6% of LA's population (2005 census data), each groups overall representation at the firms was less than 5%.

Among the top ranking firms in L.A. were Sidley Austin for its number of African-American partners and associates—three and 11 respectively. The firm also had the greatest number of women partners at 18. Morrison & Foerster took the top place as far as Hispanic associates, with seven, while Latham & Watkins, topped the list of Hispanic partners at eight. Irell & Manella had the most number of out lgbt partners at six. 

At the bottom of the lists in relation to African-American partners were Greenberg Traurig and Jones Day. Neither firm has any.  The survey found that Loeb & Loeb did not have a single Hispanic partner. Jones Day and Skadden, Arps, have no out lesbian or gay partners. Skadden had the fewest number of women partners by far, a total of four.

In pro bono, Kirkland & Ellis scored highest and Loeb lowest. In billiable hours, Loeb had the lowest and Irell the highest. Several fims did not provide information but for the full L.A. lists click here. For The Recorder article click here.

Baker Hostetler IP lawyer decamps to Venable

In the latest defection from Baker Hostetler’s Los Angeles office, Thomas Speiss III has joined Venable’s Los Angeles office of counsel.

Speiss, an intellectual property and transactional lawyer who served of counsel at Baker Hostetler, helped defend Sharman Networks Ltd. in the music industry’s copyright infringement case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 545 U.S. 125 S. Ct. 2764 (2005).

He also handles licensing for sports, apparel and entertainment clients. Speiss, who is vice chairman of the State Bar of California’s licensing subcommittee and a member of its intellectual property section’s executive committee, co-edits the Bar’s intellectual property journal, New Matter, with JoAnna Esty, director of Venable’s intellectual property section on the West Coast.

Last month, the former managing partner of Baker Hostetler’s Los Angeles office, real estate lawyer David C. Sampson, joined Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll to manage its new Los Angeles office.

Also joining the Philadelphia firm in Los Angeles from Baker Hostetler were: Scott Preston, a real estate partner, and two real estate lawyers of counsel, Letvia Arza-Goderich and Devon McGranahan.

- Amanda Bronstad

Sidley Austin to pay $27.5 mil

Partners are protected by federal anti-discrimination law, the 7th District Court ruled last week.

The result is that Chicago-based Sidley Austin, with over 150 lawyers in Los Angeles and 1,700 lawyers nationwide, will pay $27.5 million to 32 partners for age-discrimination. The partners were demoted to counsel status in 1999.

The Anti-Discrimination in Employment Act protects employees but not employers. Sidley Austin argued that the partners were not employees but employers, and not demoted because of age. They settled to a consent decree without admitting wrongdoing, the Los Angeles Times reported.

An injunction in the decree bars them from "terminating, expelling, retiring, reducing the compensation of or otherwise adversely changing the partnership status of a partner because of age," or "maintaining any formal or informal policy or practice requiring retirement as a partner or requiring permission to continue as a partner once the partner has reached a certain age."

Heller cuts administrative staff

Heller Ehrman fired 65 administrative staff from across its U.S. offices last week to eliminate overlapping positions and costs, The Recorder reports. The layoffs come as Heller management continues to warn partners that profits may be lower than what the firm projected at the beginning of the year. Heller leaders insist that the cuts are not do to less work, one lawyer said that a lull this year "made it easier" for the firm to make the decision.

Dreier merges with Browne Woods

Dreier Stein & Kahan and Browne Woods & George have agreed to a merger that will create a 71-attorney law firm that will function as the West Coast affiliate of Dreier in New York. The combination includes the 54-attorney entertainment litigation and transactional practice of Dreier Stein & Kahan and the 17-lawyer business litigation and trial firm of Browne Woods & George. The new firm, Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods & George, will have offices in Santa Monica and Century City, Calif. Dreier Stein & Kahan was created earlier this year by Larry Stein and Bob Kahan, who left Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan. Dreier LLP, managed by Marc Dreier, is a litigation and corporate law firm in New York. -- Leigh Jones.