News
Real Estate/Development
Feb. 21, 2002
Departures Gut Real Estate Practice at Firm's S.F. Office
LOS ANGELES - The attorneys in the San Francisco office of Cleveland-based Arter & Hadden have a little more elbow room around the office these days.
The reason for the additional real estate isn't exactly a cause for celebration, however. It stems from the recent defection of five attorneys that whittles the firm's numbers by 25 percent and leaves Arter & Hadden's real estate practice group with just one attorney.
All five attorneys jumped to the Bay Area outpost of Los Angeles' Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro. The additions increase Jeffer Mangels' San Francisco real estate practice to six, while firmwide the practice group has 23 attorneys.
The five San Francisco additions include two partners, Martin Orlick, former chair of Arter & Hadden's San Francisco real estate group and Eugene Chiarelli. Terry Mollica comes aboard as of-counsel along with two associates, Renee Finley and Holly Shilliday. They all started at Jeffer Mangels between Feb. 1 and Feb. 12.
Arter & Hadden acknowledges the recent bloodshed - last July the San Francisco office housed 23 attorneys, and with the latest departures that number is down to 14 - but views it as a part of an overhaul for that outpost.
"We're in the process of rebuilding the office and the [real estate] practice group,' Kim West, interim managing partner of Arter's Bay Area office, said of how the firm is handling the losses.
The 325-lawyer firm is recruiting actively for the office and is the perfect place for an up-and-coming lawyer to build a practice, West said.
"They've got some irons in the fire," he said, adding that the firm's national real estate practice is thriving - something that helped boost Orlick's practice in San Francisco.
As for losing Orlick, West, nephew of basketball great and former Los Angeles Lakers general manager Jerry West, said sometimes you have to take steps that appear to be backward in order to move forward and conquer.
"The Lakers went through a rebuilding period and came through stronger than ever," West said. "They traded a veteran player, Vlade Divac, to draft an unknown kid out of high school - Kobe Bryant."
West pointed out that Arter & Hadden is looking for attorneys like Orlick, who, seven years ago, arrived enthusiastic and built a profitable real estate practice.
Meanwhile, Jeffer Mangels accepted the veteran attorneys as part of the 162-attorney firm's efforts to expand.
"With record-year profits, we are in a position to attract really high-quality lawyers who are looking for a stable platform to grow their practice,' said Paul Warner, managing partner of Jeffer Mangels' San Francisco office.
Warner declined to release profit totals.
Orlick, who took clients 24-Hour Fitness USA Inc., Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank to Jeffer Mangels, likes the firm's plan to provide a full-service business platform without being locked into any particular discipline.
"In the San Francisco office, they've got cradle-to-grave litigation capabilities and corporate and tax capabilities without being overcommitted," Orlick said.
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Donna Huffaker
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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