Somos Group hopes real estate developers and governing bodies seeking legal land use help will come knocking.
And when those clients are looking for other sorts of assistance in their projects, Somos Group hopes they’ll stick around for that, too. The new downtown-based boutique firm, which opened March 1, not only offers legal services but an array of consulting and public engagement services meant to overlap together for its clients.
“We feel like as lawyers, we have a unique place at the table to be able to find those solutions for our clients,” said Somos co-founder and Chief Executive Alfred Fraijo Jr. “When we started Somos, we really were focused on creating a platform that was truly multidisciplinary.”
It’s a business model that has been adopted by some larger, global law firms in recent years. However, while those tend to be general full-service practices, Somos is dedicated to land use and real estate, particularly those that are considered sustainable and responsible.
“It’s a model that makes sense,” observed Kevin Burke, a business of law lecturer at USC Gould School of Law. “It’s in keeping with trends in the market and where things are going. The broadening reach of law firms and legal services are in transition. I think it’s very progressive and forward thinking.”
As a minority-owned firm, Somos Group also promises to advocate for minority communities that have historically been the victim of poor planning and land use, Fraijo said.
“We built a team that looks like the decision-makers that our developer clients are approaching for approval. The political leadership in California is increasingly diverse and we reflect that diversity when we go to the table and meet with government officials,” he said. “Having that level of fluency on the issue of diversity and how land use decisions and policies impact, disproportionately, certain types of individuals and certain types of demographics is an important aspect of what we do.”
Two divisions
Within Somos Group, there are two divisions: Somos Law Group and Somos Advisors Group.
There are 16 attorneys and other employees, divided between the Los Angeles office and the soon-to-be-opened location in the Bay Area. The principal idea is that a client for one division will easily be able to access services from the other — and in regulation- and public interest-heavy areas like land use, they often need to.
“You might say, ‘We’re providing you with this, but we can also give you a bit of advisory and consulting on land use issues and help you make a decision,’” Burke speculated. “It’s a cool thing. What they’re doing is creating this expertise ecosystem for service delivery to the client that captures specialties that meet their needs and in some circumstances extend beyond the traditional lawyer thing.”
Fraijo and his co-founder, Kira Conlon, formed Somos Group after building a working partnership for more than a decade at the Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton law firm.
Conlon joined as an associate in 2011, working with partner Fraijo in his land use practice at the downtown-based AmLaw 100 firm. She made partner in 2021 after starting at the firm as a summer associate while at Southwestern Law School.
The Honolulu native said she entered law school with an interest in solving problems with how communities were built and how to improve lives for their residents.
“Growing up on an island, I was acutely aware of the issue of constrained resources, natural resources and the built environment. It was always in the news,” Conlon said. “We have to literally ship everything that the island needs. I was always curious about that, and I really followed that curiosity when I came out to California for my education.
“When I found out more about this practice area from Alfred (Fraijo), it was an immediate match for me,” she added.
Fraijo grew up in Boyle Heights, where as a student at Roosevelt High School he became involved in a leadership council organized by then-Councilman Richard Alatorre. That work inspired him to get to a point where he could make a difference in communities like his, where decisions were often made at the expense of its residents.
“I saw him as my inspiration, so when I went to college, I really was interested in working in public service,” Fraijo said. “I thought I would be in politics, and I figured I needed to go to law school to understand the way laws worked, how they were made and how they were enforced — not really understanding that when you go to law school, you become a lawyer.”
A large part of Fraijo’s and Conlon’s work together involved assembling a variety of outside experts for clients and their projects. As they plotted to branch out from big law into their own endeavor, the two felt it would be worthwhile for their mission and their clients to bring it all under one roof. On a smaller scale, Fraijo said he believed they had greater flexibility and nimbleness to scheme out creative solutions.
Conlon said they acted as “the quarterback” of any particular deal.
“Lawyers are bringing all the subject matter experts together and creating a vision and strategy to execute whatever that solution is at the end of the day,” she said. “What’s amazing that we’re able to do now is we don’t have to take third party consultants from here and there and patch a team together. The team all lives within Somos and we can seamlessly come out and help each other in a collaborative way.”
The pitch was good enough for a trove of clients to follow Fraijo and Conlon. Local projects for which Somos is signed onto include the Pomona Fairplex Specific Plan and the Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan. Their client list also includes the Los Angeles Community College District, the Los Angeles Department of Beaches and Harbors and the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Diversity focus
Representation is a key part of Somos Group’s business model as well. That’s because the group is specifically targeting clients and projects that are “mission-driven” to making a difference for California’s wealth of diverse communities and the ecology they inhabit.
“Big law continues to face these challenges around representation and diversity. Mentorship for me was really important. Diverse hiring was really important. Representing clients that value diversity was really important,” Fraijo said. “Over the course of my career, I understood that having a platform that really integrated those values front and center was going to be not only important for the work that we do but was going to be a competitive advantage.”
It’s an experience near and dear to Fraijo’s heart, having grown up in a poor Mexican family in East Los Angeles, where air quality and open green space were often lacking.
“Boyle Heights is a great example of how land use decisions that are not made with the best interest of Black and brown communities in mind, how it can have a disproportionate impact to the health outcomes of that community,” he said. “I know that because I’ve lived there. I lived that, and now as a land use attorney, I can make a difference.”
Conlon, whose parents are Japanese and Filipino, said she was proud to inherit her father’s legacy as founder and owner of an accounting firm in Torrance.
“As a kid, I remember growing up in his office, seeing him with his firm and growing,” she said. “I always was around entrepreneurs and having that entrepreneurial spirit is something I’ve always been curious about. When Alfred came to me with this opportunity, it made a lot of sense.”
Burke, the USC lecturer, said it was to Somos Group’s advantage to prominently broadcast its message. Not only is its mission made loud and clear, but it means the branding will likely stick with them as clients look for this sort of work.
“They kind of isolated their focus to what they’re really good at and they’re aligning their core strengths with the concept of brand differentiation,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘In Los Angeles, we’re going to be identified with this niche market. We’re going to be known for this,’ and it’s going to help their reputation.”
Ever respectful of their roots and origins, Fraijo and Conlon remain thankful for their experience developing as lawyers at Sheppard Mullin, where Fraijo served as both the first Chicano and first openly gay member of the firm’s executive committee.
“We’re really grateful for the experience and nurturing that we got in big law,” Fraijo said. “We are really happy to be a part of that Sheppard family and we have many good friends at the firm. We grew up at the firm and we broke a lot of barriers there.”
And likewise, Burke said clients will likely be impressed by the pedigree of attorneys and professionals at Somos Group.
“They come from a great firm. That means they’re serious,” he said. “There’s substance to them. These are people that come from something.”
