26 octobre, 2006 11:40
N.Y. Firm Wants to Double Its Size With L.A. Push
Dreier looks to build a 100-lawyer affiliate
Amanda Bronstad
The National Law Journal
October 26, 2006
Out of the rubble of the latest failed merger in Los Angeles, one lawyer has emerged: Marc Dreier, whose New York firm has ambitious West Coast plans to hire more than 30 lawyers from Santa Monica, Calif.-based Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan, including name partners Stanton "Larry" Stein and Robert Kahan.
And he's not stopping there.
Dreier, founder and managing partner of New York-based Dreier, said he wants to build a 100-lawyer affiliate firm in Los Angeles. The move would double the size of his 10-year-old firm, which he built through a collection of independent affiliate firms and recent hires, such as last month's arrival of four lawyers from Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman.
"My plan is to have a bicoastal practice in New York and Los Angeles," Dreier said.
Dreier, former head of the litigation department in the New York office of Houston's Fulbright & Jaworski, started his firm to address the complaints from lawyers at branch offices that their firms alienated them, failed to promote them and paid them diluted profits.
'MORE LIKE A BUSINESS'
At Dreier, partners are given bonuses tied to the fees that they generate, he said. Some of the firm's lawyers work for separate legal entities, called affiliates, that share resources but remain independently marketed and managed.
"They are trying to be innovative," said Lawrence Mullman, managing director and co-lead of the partner practice group in New York for legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa. "It's more like a business than a law firm."
On Sept. 1, all eight lawyers of New York bankruptcy boutique Traub, Bonacquist & Fox joined Dreier's New York office. That same month, four former partners joined from Milberg Weiss, the New York-based plaintiffs firm specializing in securities class actions that was indicted in May on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Dreier's affiliate law firms are: Schlesinger Gannon & Lazetera, a trusts and estates group; Pitta & Dreier, in labor and employment; and Pitta, Bishop, Del Giorno & Dreier, a consulting and government relations firm.
Other practice areas include entertainment, corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property and real estate.
Last year, the firm opened an additional office in Stamford, Conn., which now has 10 lawyers. The firm also has a small office in Albany, N.Y.
L.A. AMBITIONS
Once fully staffed, the Los Angeles office would be the largest affiliate of Dreier, he said. Stein, Kahan and the other lawyers at Alschuler began looking to Dreier after merger discussions failed late last month between their firm and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cooley Godward, now Cooley Godward Kronish.
Stein said Dreier's midsized firm fits better with his practice, which includes entertainers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
"Marc and I share a number of common beliefs about the state of the legal profession," Stein said. "We do not favor the consolidation that's resulting in these thousands-of-lawyers' law firms controlled 3,000 or 6,000 miles away. We believe that's destructive to creativity and flexibility."
NAME UNCERTAIN
Dreier said that the affiliate might be named Dreier, Stein & Kahan, although that could change. He said he would like to build an office with a total of four practice areas: entertainment, corporate, commercial litigation and real estate.
The firm already had an office in Los Angeles to hire 20 lawyers, but talks with Stein and Kahan come with space that could house up to 80 lawyers at their Santa Monica office.
He plans to open that office on Jan. 1.
"Sometime next year, my expectation is we'll have a firm of 100 or close to 100 attorneys in Los Angeles," Dreier said.
