It’s not just automakers, semiconductor manufacturers and other U.S. goods exporters that stand to benefit from the recently passed South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement – law firms hoping for a foothold in Seoul have been keeping an eye on it, too.
The new agreement will open up Korea’s borders to U.S. firms next year. Earlier this month, several announced plans to open offices across the Pacific. Two of the first out of the gate were L.A. firms Paul Hastings LLP and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
“It’s been in our thinking for a decade,” said Greg Nitzkowski, managing partner of Paul Hastings. “It’s been a shared goal of all the firms that have been developing South Korea-oriented practices.”
Paul Hastings has had a Korea practice group for years, and its attorneys represent Korean clients such as Samsung Group and Kolon Industries Inc. from offices in Japan, Hong Kong and the Unites States. Now, with the free-trade agreement ratified, the firm is planning to open a 15-attorney office in Seoul by spring.
Downtown L.A.’s Sheppard Mullin plans to start with three or four attorneys in the first quarter of next year. Its existing Korean clients include Samsung, Hyundai Motor Co. and all of the country’s “big four” banks.
“I do not view this as a ‘Build it and they will come’ scenario,” said Guy Halgren, Sheppard Mullin chairman. “I think you need to have existing strong relationships with leading Korean companies.”
Other firms with plans to open Seoul offices include Chicago’s McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Boston’s Ropes & Gray LLP and New York’s Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
But with L.A.’s strong ties to Korea, firms with a strong presence here have an advantage, Nitzkowski said.
“The high-level legal talent that has the language and cultural facilities to work on great Korea-oriented matters come disproportionately from families settled in Southern California,” he said.
Preparing for Worst
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP is betting that one casualty of the federal budget crisis will be government contractors, especially in the aerospace and defense industries. So the law firm is marketing a new terminations and contract restructuring practice group to represent them when the ax starts falling.
The group consists of lawyers in Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Denver. L.A. lawyers are heavily involved because of the regional presence of clients such as Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., said Michael Kavanaugh, a partner in the firm’s downtown office.
“Many of the clients who may be affected on the government side have huge operations on the West Coast and therefore would be impacted most directly if their programs were terminated,” Kavanaugh said.
When government contracts are terminated, contractors negotiate a severance cost. A company that sees its $1 billion government contract terminated might still be able to recover $100 million for costs such as building a manufacturing plant or buying materials.
Kavanaugh, 64, has decades of experience as a government contract litigator and counselor. He and other members of the new practice group will shepherd clients through those discussions, and the firm also plans to lobby to avoid contract terminations.
“We’re getting the word out and looking for those entities to retain us to do some of the strategizing and planning,” he said.
IP Pickup
Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro LLP’s pickup last week of Pruetz Law Group, a six-attorney boutique, gives the Century City firm the intellectual property practice it had been looking for.
El Segundo’s Pruetz was founded by Adrian Pruetz, a former litigator at downtown L.A. firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
Name partner Peter Weil said the addition of Pruetz gives his firm a heavy hitter in IP.
“We’ve had a practice but not a large one,” Weil said. “We recognized that intellectual property litigation is and continues to be a growing area, and Adrian’s one of the most highly respected practitioners in that area.”
Law firm mergers have bounced back strongly this year across the country due to a rebounding economy. There have been 57 mergers so far this year, according to Newtown Square, Pa., consulting firm Altman Weil Inc., a 54 percent increase from last year.
Just this month, two firms with a strong L.A. presence, St. Louis’ Bryan Cave LLP and Washington, D.C.’s Arnold & Porter LLP, announced acquisitions of their own. Bryan Cave picked up 159-attorney Denver firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, while Arnold & Porter acquired 82-attorney San Francisco firm Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin PC.
Staff reporter Alfred Lee can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 221.
