Downtown-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has announced a new slate of office partners-in-charge, including its two offices in Los Angeles.
Candice Choh and Kahn Scolnick are the partners-in-charge of the downtown and Century City offices respectively for the next five years. They succeeded Jay Srinivasan and Peter Wardle in the roles.
Although Choh is formally based in Century City and Scolnick downtown, the roles are shared, and in terms of financials and headcount the firm doesn’t separate the two locations.
“From a firm perspective, while we have two physical locations, we largely treat the two offices as one integrated whole,” Choh said. “Frankly, unlike the firms based outside of Los Angeles, we don’t take the L.A.- Century City geography as a factor. At this point, I’m almost 50-50, even though my email signature says ‘Century City.’”
The pair will provide the strategic guidance for the local operation, aiming to maintain its place in the market — at 297, Gibson Dunn is the largest firm by attorney headcount in L.A. County — and expand its clientele. The firm remains among the world’s top-grossing law firms, with American Lawyer ranking it at No. 14 last year.
“The overall goal is ensuring that the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn remains the preeminent law firm in town,” Scolnick said. “We’re one of the original firms in L.A. and we still see L.A. as a very important market.”
The offices aren’t likely to actively bolster the firm’s current attorney count, Choh added. The company, like others in town, responded to the surging demand of work during the Covid-19 pandemic by shoring up partners and associates in 2021 and 2022.
Still, the two offices expect to bring in more than 40 first-year associates this fall, after previously hosting them as summer associates.
“The economy and markets are not as robust as they were over the last two years. We’re still opportunistically looking at lateral associate hires, but our appetite for it has certainly slowed down,” Choh said. “We’re always looking to hire a partner lateral opportunistically as well.”
One policy the two will be hammering out in the immediate future is to facilitate what the workday will look like in terms of being at the office as we move past pandemic-era protocols. It’s important, Choh said, for partners developing their personal connections and associates getting the guidance they need.
“One of the things that Kahn and I are very focused on, as we’re emerging out of the pandemic and work-at-home environment, is having a smooth transition into normal life and maintaining that office culture,” she said.
“One of the defining characteristics of Gibson Dunn is collaboration,” added Scolnick, “and while it’s possible to do that over Zoom, some of that is irreplaceable to being in person, so we’re trying to find the right balance.”
The firm announced Choh’s and Scolnick’s appointments along with a slew of other new partners-in-charge, including those at its New York, Houston, Dubai and Abu Dhabi locations.
“These outstanding partners have demonstrated leadership qualities and dedication to advancing the firm’s strategic vision,” said Barbara Becker, chair and managing partner of Gibson Dunn, in a statement. “We look forward to working with them in these new roles, as well as continuing our work with the partners-in-charge of the firm’s other offices around the world.”
