Firm Watch
Jun. 25, 2002
Piper Rudnick: TWO LATERAL ADDITIONS STRENGTHEN L.A. OFFICE
Six months after a merger deal between Piper Rudnick and San Francisco's McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen collapsed, the Chicago- and Baltimore-based firm is working to increase its presence in California.
But instead of shopping for new merger partners, Piper Rudnick has begun to expand the size of its Los Angeles office by adding lateral hires.
The most recent additions are Michael Eidel, a litigator from Crosby Heafey Roach & May, and Jon Meer, a labor and employment lawyer from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Both joined earlier this month.
Several associates and some support staff from Akin Gump also joined Piper Rudnick.
"From Piper's perspective, this is a great beginning to a strategic plan to expand our presence in Los Angeles through the acquisition of high-quality lawyers," Jeffrey Rosenfeld, managing partner of Piper Rudnick's Los Angeles post, says.
"That didn't work out," Rosenfeld adds of the McCutchen Doyle merger talks, "and so this is the approach that we're looking to now."
Eidel, 42, has a commercial litigation practice focusing on the entertainment, intellectual property and real estate industries. Legal recruiter Randi Frisch of LegalWorks in Los Angeles brokered the move involving Eidel, whose book of business is $1.5 million.
Meer, 38, is the head of Piper's Los Angeles labor and employment group. He brings a $3 million practice, including clients 20th Century Fox Film Corp., MCI Worldcom Inc., Telemundo Networks Inc., financial services company Imperial Credit Industries Inc., and temporary staffing agency Kelly Services Inc.
This won't be the first time that Meer and Rosenfeld have practiced law at the same firm. Both previously worked at the entertainment and litigation firm Troop Steuber Pasich Reddick & Tobey. Meer joined Akin Gump in January 2001, when the Washington, D.C.-based firm acquired more than 50 percent of Troop Steuber's 120 attorneys. Troop Steuber's 26-attorney insurance group joined Howrey Simon Arnold & White, while Rosenfeld and the rest of the lawyers pursued other options.
Rosenfeld decided to join Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe - now called Piper Rudnick - in January 2001 to open its Los Angeles post. The additions bring the number of lawyers in that office to 15.
Oakland-based Crosby Heafey has 240 lawyers among six California offices.
Akin Gump has more than 1,000 lawyers practicing in 14 offices firmwide.
Piper Rudnick has 11 offices and 850 attorneys nationwide.
Staff Writer
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