Intellectual Property Firm Thinks It’s Time to Grow

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Wilmington, Del., intellectual property firm Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz looked like a firm in trouble to some industry insiders last fall. In the months leading up to an announced merger with Houston’s Novak Druce & Quigg, it shed several partners, including two in its L.A. office.

But now, with the merger having closed earlier this month, the newly constituted Novak Druce Connolly Bove & Quigg LLP said it is looking to expand, placing particular emphasis on its downtown L.A. office.

Gregory Novak, firm managing partner, and Grant T. Langton, office managing partner, said they want to more than double the headcount of the outpost during the next 18 months, to between 25 and 30 attorneys from 11 today. They believe they can convince intellectual property attorneys at general practice firms to jump to an intellectual property-only firm, and are in talks to add three such partners in the next month. The newly formed firm is the seventh largest intellectual property firm in the country.

“We think there’s pent-up demand,” Novak said. “Right now there are really good lawyers who are looking to change their platform.”

Novak Druce’s push comes at a time when larger general practice firms are poaching top talent from IP-only firms, causing some to question the IP-only model.

Indeed, Connolly Bove lost partner Bruce Chapman and Scott R. Miller, office managing partner, to downtown general practice firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP last year. At the time, Miller told the Business Journal he was attracted by Sheppard Mullin’s larger platform and growth – the firm has nearly doubled its stable of IP attorneys in two years.

Sandy Lechtick, president of Woodland Hills legal search firm Esquire Inc., said that although the merger would “add some wind to the sail,” Novak Druce would face challenges expanding in Los Angeles. Many firms are competing to add top IP talent locally, while the number of IP attorneys with large books of business in Los Angeles is relatively small.

“The jury is out, in part because of the shallowness of the talent pool and the fact that they’re not as well-known as a number of other firms that have pretty solid IP practices,” he said.

Westside Growth

Credo LLP, a corporate law boutique in downtown Los Angeles, has added four attorneys and opened a Santa Monica office this month in an attempt to capture more work with emerging growth and new-media companies.

Mara Morner-Ritt, a corporate attorney for entertainment companies, will head the Santa Monica office as a partner.

“This gives me an opportunity to bring my area of entertainment expertise toward growth-oriented companies and new technology-oriented companies,” said Morner-Ritt.

Also joining the firm this month were tax attorney Jack Brandon, corporate and securities attorney Sander C. Zagzebski and litigator Walter R. Zagzebski. The additions boost the firm’s attorney count to 10.

Credo was founded about five years ago by Heather McCormick, a Pasadena Angels investor and former San Francisco attorney, with a focus on private-equity mergers and acquisitions, and entrepreneurial companies. The firm sometimes takes equity stakes in startups it works with.

McCormick said that this month’s expansion was partly an attempt to take advantage of the explosion of emerging growth and tech companies on the Westside, especially in the areas of content and advertising.

“It’s a unique time in L.A.’s history,” she said. “Although there are a couple of us firms that have been working in entrepreneurship here in Los Angeles, it is really coming into its own for the very first time with Silicon Valley meeting entertainment.”


Former Politico

Linda Bernhardt, a former San Diego city councilwoman and deputy mayor to Richard Riordan, has joined the downtown L.A. office of Baltimore law firm DLA Piper as a senior adviser.

Bernhardt left government work in 2001 and went on to a string of law firms, chairing the land development and regulatory affairs practice at Century City’s Loeb & Loeb LLP and co-chairing the California land development practice at the L.A. office of Miami’s Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Bernhardt was elected to the San Diego City Council in 1989, just a few years out of law school at age 29. She never took the bar exam and so is not a practicing attorney. Instead, she works with developers navigating the approvals process, lobbies for clients and helps utility companies with permitting. She said her book of business and compensation levels are equivalent to that of a top-tier partner.

“Other attorneys (I compete with) were busy practicing law for the first 10 or 15 years, while I was busy learning the in-depth machinations of the process of getting legislation and land-use deals done,” she said.

Michael Meyer, co-managing partner of DLA Piper’s L.A. offices, said the firm is looking to add local attorneys in other areas, especially corporate law as well as finance, and mergers and acquisitions. It also will pursue attorneys working with startups. DLA lost a prominent attorney in that field when David Young jumped to Silicon Valley firm Cooley LLP last year.

Staff reporter Alfred Lee can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 221.

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