The upstart Underwood Law Firm P.C. — which grew out of a dedicated focus on partition law — recently leased an office in Brentwood, which it aims to continuing shoring up.
Founding attorney Eli Underwood, who launched the firm in Sacramento and expanded to Oakland and Newport Beach, entered the L.A. market along Wilshire Boulevard on July 5. His goal in founding the firm was to take the niche practice of partition law — which deals with properties owned by multiple people who differ on keeping or offloading them — and make it the main purpose of his operation.
“There wasn’t really anybody that I saw who was really doing an excellent job with this,” Underwood explained. “I had a lot of calls in Los Angeles and started to do a lot of work here. We hired an L.A. lawyer in November, and we decided at this time to open an L.A. office to better serve our L.A. clients.”
Partition law is meant to solve property co-ownership problems. One example might be when a nonmarried couple purchases a home together, breaks up and do not agree what to do with the home or mortgage. Another common scenario, Underwood said, is when siblings inherit a property together and differ about whether to sell or keep it.
“The real estate market in Los Angeles is constantly in motion, and more times than not people are buying or inheriting property with other people,” said Sandy Sikavi, who is the L.A.-based attorney for Underwood Law. “For example, we currently have a breach-of-contract dispute between two brothers regarding two single-family homes located in Los Angeles County. As our Los Angeles-based cases continue to grow, we thought an L.A. office would allow us to better attend to these clients.”
Underwood worked as a partner at a Sacramento firm before he left to form his own practice, largely because he saw there was a growing demand for attorneys skilled in partition law.
“There are so many of these cases in California, and by focusing on one practice area, I can provide higher value for my clients than if I did 20 different types of law,” he said. “I just want to give my clients amazing value and amazing service and I felt like I could be a B-average real estate lawyer but an A-plus partition lawyer.”
Underwood Law is using a coworking space at 11755 Wilshire Blvd., where Sikavi maintains an office.
“My hope is to add a second attorney to L.A. office by winter and a third by spring,” he said. “You go where the people area. L.A. is just kind of the big fish in the pond.”
Sikavi said she thinks the market will grow and added that she’s confident Underwood can lead the firm to be a force in that market.
