Another Am Law 200 firm has found its way to Los Angeles. This time, it’s Milwaukee-based Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, which this month merged with O&A P.C. to enter L.A. The full-service firm operates out of the former firm’s Brentwood office and absorbed its eight attorneys and other staff.

“We’re staying here for a bit and will figure out in the next year or two what the future holds,” said Dan Offner, founder of O&A and now the L.A. managing partner for Michael Best. “I think the plan is to grow a full-service office here in California.”

With O&A, Michael Best has absorbed a venture capital boutique law firm to bolster its own significant national group. The transaction also included Michael Best acquiring StartupProgram.com Inc., a proprietary software developed by O&A to help clients form venture-ready corporations.

Offner founded O&A in 2015 after he, as general counsel to the former Oculus VR, helped broker that company’s sale to then-Facebook (now Meta). He ultimately eschewed remaining with Facebook or pivoting to Big Law.

“What I saw as an opportunity was to build a practice for entrepreneurs in the L.A. market, working at the intersection of technology and content and trying to help those people get off the ground and get going,” Offner said. “We were fortunate that the timing was right. Between the solo practitioner and the bigger competitors, there was a gap in the market for a nimble boutique such as ours.”

Terms for the transactions were not disclosed, although Offner noted that his former firm had courted numerous other mergers in recent years.

Michael Best now had 18 offices nationally, with more than 400 attorneys. Offner and his team now join the firm’s Venture Best team, recognized by PitchBook as a Top 10 venture capital law practice.

“Dan and his team bring deep experience in the areas of gaming, AI and technology, as well as the venture communities centered around Los Angeles and Silicon Valley,” said Galen Mason, co-chair of Venture Best.