Downtown law firms with the resources and gumption to open a second office in Los Angeles typically have a Century City address.
Not so for Seattle-based Davis Wright Tremaine, which recently cut the ribbon for its Culver City office. Though the full-service law firm has maintained a downtown office since 1989, management had eyed expansion for years — and looked westward, per tradition. Ultimately, the firm’s specialized practice in entertainment helped point it to Culver City, where that industry is heavily represented.
“About 10 years ago, we were kicking the idea of whether we want a westside presence,” said Camilo Echavarria, partner-in-charge of Davis Wright Tremaine’s Los Angeles and Culver City operations. “Nothing really felt right, but over the last three or four years, we really started zeroing in on Culver City, where it just seemed like so many more things were happening, and we could be so close to our clients as they took off.”
While there are more than a handful of law practices in Culver City, none are at the caliber of Davis Wright Tremaine, which had a reported revenue of $482 million in 2021. This has emboldened the firm to hail itself as the first AmLaw 100 firm — one of the nation’s top 100 revenue grossing firms, per the publication American Law — to move into Culver City, in anticipation of others potentially following suit.
“We often see that in international markets or new cities,” said Victoria Schwartz, a professor of entertainment law at the Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. “One will move, and others will feel the need to move.”
A little different
Working during the Covid-19 pandemic upended things for law offices, at least temporarily. Many, like Davis Wright Tremaine, have in the immediate term adopted a hybrid working arrangement for their attorneys.
With this new office, located in a warehouse at Jefferson Boulevard and Obama Boulevard where Baldwin Hills meets Culver City, Echavarria said management was looking for a “different type of space as opposed to a traditional sort of law firm.”
“We’re in this really cool giant warehouse space with giant rafters and natural light coming in from the ceilings,” he said. “That really appealed to us. That’s kind of what drew us to Culver City.”
The ground-level office sports relaxing lounge space along with a variety of sectioned-off areas that are not dedicated individual offices, but rather reservable by the firm’s attorneys as they need them. In addition to the seven partners who are assigned to this office, attorneys from the downtown location have also utilized this space as they need it.
“We’ve had a really nice assortment of attorneys coming in from other areas and working in our offices,” said Hope Levy-Biehl, co-chair of the firm’s health care law practice.
The Culver City practice is to focus on two of the firm’s major practices — media/entertainment and health care. Davis Wright Tremaine counts major streamers including Amazon Studios, Apple TV and HBO among its clients and the new location puts the firm within a stone’s throw of many of those companies.
“The entertainment group recently had a lunch event where a third of our clients who came were able to walk to our location, which is cool in L.A.,” Echavarria said. Added Levy-Biehl, who is now based at this office: “Part of the way we designed this office was really to make it flexible and open to host events and other gatherings.”
Additionally, the choice of bringing the health care practice there is more about economics. A large chunk of health care attorneys in Los Angeles tend to work west of downtown, Levy-Biehl said.
“There’s a pretty strong health law bar on the Westside of Los Angeles,” she added, “and we really wanted to create an opportunity to expand our health law group through recruiting.”
First to come?
Unlike other major markets, Los Angeles has a handful of areas where larger or high-profile law firms like to cluster.
There’s downtown, of course, after which Century City is the next obvious spot. Midsize and boutique firms dot the San Fernando Valley. Market forces sometimes drive where law firms settle, according to Schwartz from Pepperdine.
There’s a pretty strong health law bar on the Westside of Los Angeles.
HOPE LEVY-BIEHL
Davis Wright Tremaine
“L.A.’s a pretty unusual market in that we have so many hubs,” she said.
“During the dotcom boom, a bunch of firms opened up in Santa Monica trying to be closer to the ‘Silicon Beach’ development. For most big cities, downtowns are the one area where everything is. This movement has happened before, first to Century City and then to Santa Monica. Clearly all of these moves suggest an assumption on the part of the law firm that proximity matters.”
That being said, Culver City is not all that far away from Century City to be that meaningful for clients seeking a closer law firm. However, the vibe between the two is certainly different, as is the price for office space. Schwartz, who previously practiced at O’Melveny & Myers’ offices in downtown and Century City, suggested different regional cultures might be a bigger factor for clients, and that any new law firm hub may be borne of necessity than from a new industry focus.
“I don’t know that we’ll see that here because Culver City is so close to Century City,” Schwartz said. “It may be that firms that are national firms that don’t have an L.A. presence will see this as a third option.”
According to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., office space in Century City went for about $6.20 per square foot in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to $4.71 in Culver City.
Additionally, the vacancy rate was about 14% in Century City and 30% in Culver City.
“Real estate is of course a piece of the story,” Schwartz said. “It has to be. Where can you afford to get space and where can you get lots of it?”
That uniqueness is certainly not lost on the Davis Wright Tremaine team, who repeatedly highlighted the comparison to their prior office in a downtown high-rise.
“We’re excited to grow our presence in Southern California here,” Levy-Biehl said. “Even though we’re an AmLaw 100 firm, we’re really different and think this space reflects who we are as opposed to a traditional BigLaw firm.”
And moving forward, the extra space could certainly accommodate any growth that Davis Wright Tremaine aspires to.
“We’re hoping that such a dynamic place will attract a group of people who otherwise would not be looking at downtown,” Echavarria added. “The hope is to continue to grow our entertainment, health care and corporate law practices, and we’re hoping that having that presence on the westside will attract those dynamic folks. With the hybrid model, we have 20 attorney offices which I estimate can house 40 attorneys. In today’s world, we require people to come in two days a week, so there definitely is more room to grow than before the pandemic with the size that we have.”
