Many East Coast law firms have entered the Los Angeles market throughout the past decade. None have done it with the gusto of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Having opened doors in September 2021 with just three partners, the outpost has now ballooned to nearly 100 attorneys. Its in-development Century City office will have space for 160 lawyers.
In two-and-a-half years, the firm vaulted to being in the neighborhood of the 25th largest law office by headcount in Los Angeles County.
“The speed of our growth is definitely something that we’re very excited about,” said Alex Weingarten, who started and has led the L.A. office as its managing partner, “but more important to me has been the quality of our growth.”
As the office approaches its third anniversary, Weingarten said he will continue to build up its marquee practice groups – commercial litigation and corporate M&A, with an entertainment flair, as well as private wealth and real estate – while also making it a full-service operation. He anticipates that when the office is completed, it may start off fully occupied.
“The expansion continues,” Weingarten said. “I think there is a very real possibility that we will be full by the time this space comes online, based on current discussions and what’s in the recruiting pipeline.”
Coming back to leadership
This is Weingarten’s second rodeo in an office leadership role, an experience he said informs his strategy in building out the current operation.
After spending nearly five years as an associate at Century City-based Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, Weingarten spent about nine years running the ship at the former Weingarten Brown LLP. That firm grew to 14 attorneys and 14 other staffers, at which point Weingarten said he reached a crossroads.
“There are growing pains, and you get to a point in any practice – whether it’s a small firm like that or a medium-sized firm – where you’ve got to decide who you are,” he explained. “Keeping on that trajectory was going to be difficult. Having one person responsible for running the firm, generating business and being the lead trial lawyer is a lot for one person to take on. I had to go in one of two directions: I had to join Big Law or decide to go smaller.”
Going with the former, Weingarten’s team migrated to the Century City office of Venable LLP, where he clocked nearly nine years and solidified his stature as one of the county’s top litigators. In 2021, Weingarten was selected to launch Willkie’s office, alongside transactions partner Alan Epstein and estate planning partner Michele Mulrooney. In the following weeks, their respective teams from Venable joined them. Weingarten was also made firmwide chair of the entertainment litigation practice group.
“The same kind of crossroads presented itself and I really needed to decide what direction I wanted to take my practice in and what I wanted to do with the next act of my career,” Weingarten said. “Willkie magically appeared at that point.”
Willkie’s aggressive launch was informed by prior expansions in Palo Alto, San Francisco and Chicago and complemented by Weingarten’s own experience in building a business. Quickly establishing a large team, he noted, makes it less daunting for an attorney to lateral into an upstart operation.
“A lesson that the firm learned through expansion that predated our arrival is that it’s much easier to grow once you have critical mass already,” Weingarten added. “Once you have that beachhead, it’s much easier to go from there. We had a nice head start. Day one, we were three lawyers; by the end of the second week, we were close to 40 because the three of us brought our teams over.”
Should Willkie reach or near its 160-attorney goal here, it would be in Top 7 territory for L.A. County – and the second largest operation not based here.
Such a headcount would also put Willkie among a trio of Midwest Big Law firms – Kirkland & Ellis, Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Sidley Austin LLP – who, all from Chicago, set up shop here in 1989, 1973 and 1980. As things are, Willkie has already grown well past another New York Big Law stalwart, White & Case, which came to L.A. in 1986.
Why Willkie?
Initially formed in 1888, the New York-based Willkie has established itself as a global white-shoe firm. With $1.5 billion in revenue reported last year, American Lawyer ranked the firm No. 30 in its vaunted Am Law 200 ranking this year.
Moving into L.A., the second largest market in the U.S., is a sensible move for any large East Coast firm, Weingarten said, but executing that move is another matter.
“It’s a mid-market town. It’s not home to a lot of Fortune 100 companies,” he pointed out. “The reason people have not been as successful as we’ve been is because they don’t recognize that L.A. is unique and you need to have a unique approach to managing a business here.”
Drawing from a pool of homegrown Angelenos is part of Weingarten’s recruitment strategy, as is luring in established attorneys who are also ingrained in the business and civic fabric of L.A. Where other firms fail, Weingarten contended, is when they start an office with a team of transplants who have little-to-no connections here.
“We are part of the community here and that’s something that a lot of other firms, for whatever reason, haven’t replicated, and that’s been a key to our success,” he added.
Weingarten said he is additionally picky about who he courts and brings aboard at the personality level. On top of a compelling business reason to hire an attorney or team, there needs to be a certain intangible that, in effect, makes “one plus one equal three.” Asked to explain firm culture, Weingarten said, “We take the work that we do extraordinarily seriously, and we do not take ourselves seriously in any way, shape or form.”
“We’ve been presented with a lot of opportunities where there’s a great business case for something,” he added, “but it’s just not the right cultural fit, so it’s not something we’re interested in.”
Among these laterals is Misty Sanford, whose team joined Willkie from downtown-based Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in 2022. She now chairs the firm’s West Coast real estate group and has continued to grow her team.
“We’re not trying to get to any certain number,” Sanford added, discussing the location’s overall growth. “We’re trying to be strategic and when we can grab talent that we think will be accretive to what we’re doing, we want to grab it and be thoughtful about that.”
Sanford recalled how diligently her team searched for a landing point.
“We looked at 15 different firms. Willkie wasn’t on that initial list because it was a brand-new office, but like magic, it kind of fell out of the sky,” she said. “We did a deep dive on the other firms, and we were looking for ‘Goldilocks.’ We needed this big platform for our clients, but we really wanted to be a part of something and not just a cog in some New York wheel.”
Although the firm does not disclose individual office revenues, American Lawyer reported that firmwide revenue was up 13.1% and 8.7% in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Additionally, the publication in March reported that firm chairs Matthew Feldman and Thomas Cerabino cited the L.A. operation as outperforming last year.
Enjoying the new crib
As with any upstart operation, Willkie attorneys here had to patiently wait for its permanent home to be built out.
The firm has taken out three floors at 2029 Century Park East, about half of which is completed. The lease also includes an option for a fourth floor. Eager to move in, the operation began using the completed portions of the space in November. Prior to that, they were working out of a temporary space in the same building.
“Far and away the most significant restraint that we’ve had on our growth was the lack of physical space,” Weingarten said.
All individual offices are the same size, with windowed faces, a decision Weingarten called “egalitarian” in nature. The corners serve as shared or recreational spaces, with amenities including an arcade-style video game machine, a lounge with a record player and local craft beers on tap. In Willkie tradition, an LED map of L.A. adorns a wall in the lobby.
While the firm has no in-office mandate, Weingarten said the office was designed to make attorneys want to come in. Making a reference to one of Sanford’s clients – Caruso, the namesake development company owned by Rick Caruso – Weingarten said he had The Grove, and its inviting atmosphere, in mind.
A fuller office means more mentorship for junior attorneys, Weingarten and Sanford added, as well as more spontaneous opportunities for everyone. This has an added benefit of fostering the firm’s collegiality and partnership dynamic.
“There are a lot of large law firms that are more sole proprietors operating under a common brand. Willkie is really a true partnership in the old school sense,” Weingarten said. “I’m extraordinarily busy. I have a very successful practice. I’ve taken a big chunk of my year so far trying a case for someone else’s client, because that’s what you do. That’s the culture of the firm, and that happens at every office. If someone needs you, you say, ‘Yes.’”
