Boutique Firm Looks to Turn Art Into Business

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Art sales worldwide are booming and lawyers are flocking to the industry in hopes of capitalizing on the growth.

The international art market topped $16.1 billion last year, up more than 12 percent from 2013, according to art market tracker Artnet. But the growing market is also increasing demand for specialized legal services, especially in New York and Los Angeles.

The trend prompted attorneys Michael Spencer and Brian Kerr to launch a boutique law firm last month. The firm, Spencer Kerr, opened offices in downtown Los Angeles and New York dedicated exclusively to art law.

“The art law market is not served by very many lawyers who’re dedicated to that kind of practice,” Spencer said. “Both in litigation and even in transactional work, the lawyers involved in it are mostly generalists and don’t have the focus on art that we have developed.”

But that could soon change.

Larry Kaye, a longtime art attorney and partner in the New York office of Herrick Feinstein, attended an art law conference in Los Angeles earlier this month. Hundreds of attorneys were there, he said, and it’s increasingly obvious that interest in the practice area is soaring nationwide.

“I get calls all the time from law students who want to get into the field,” Kaye said. “Now it’s almost every month someone starts an art law firm.”

The good news for Spencer Kerr, though, is there seems to be plenty of work to go around. The duo represents everyone from artists to investors to galleries and art collectors. And as more people buy art, a slew of legal disputes are sure to follow.

“As the market expands, the challenges expand as well,” Kerr said. “So much of what has transpired in the art field for the last several decades has largely been driven on a hand-shake culture. I think the times are changing in that regard and the law is catching up.”

Risky Business

A legal feud is brewing in a federal court in Texas as the state leads a charge to strike down President Barack Obama’s controversial executive order on immigration, announced late last year. But a small law firm in downtown Los Angeles now hopes it can entice the federal judge to uphold the action.

Andrade Gonzalez, a five-attorney boutique litigation firm, was selected last month to write a brief in support of the president’s action on behalf of a coalition of 33 U.S. mayors, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

There was a catch though – the firm had only 24 hours to complete the brief.

“It was a really fast process for such a big project,” said Sean Andrade, a partner in the firm. “It was all hands on deck. Everyone in my firm really contributed.”

Andrade said he immediately agreed to work on the brief because immigration issues hit close to home. His firm is among the few Latino-owned law firms in Los Angeles.

Still, the lawyer said he also appreciates the risks that come with involvement in such high-profile and widely debated issues. Indeed, some potential clients could shy away from hiring the firm if they disagree with the president’s executive order.

“It could actually hurt business,” he said. “I do know there is that risk, but that risk paled in comparison to the good we thought we could do by contributing to the brief.”

Selective Hiring

Don’t let Lippman Jungers fool you – even though it vacated its office in Century City six years ago, the legal recruiting firm said business is stronger than ever.

“We had our two best years in 2013 and 2014 and we’re still hopeful that 2015 will be even better,” said co-founder Sabina Lippman, who now works from home. “Knock wood, we had an incredible January.”

The method in which law firms hire and recruit new talent is much more selective today, which Lippman said is a trend that has intensified in recent months.

For instance, many lawyers looking to jump ship from one firm to another are typically asked 30 or 40 ethics-related questions, she said, but it wasn’t long ago attorneys would only a face a handful of such inquiries.

“It’s getting to a much higher level of scrutiny,” she said. “Now firms are definitely a lot more careful.”

More scrutiny, though, means more business for legal recruiting firms such as Lippman Jungers because many law firms rely on outside professionals to sift through candidates prior to their internal interview process.

Still, Lippman said that while she has staff in traditional offices in other cities, she has no intentions of opening another physical office in Los Angeles any time soon. In other industries, the success of a business is often accompanied by more traffic, but for legal recruiters, just the opposite is true.

“Nobody would want to come to the office because they didn’t want to be seen by other attorneys,” she said.

Staff reporter Cale Ottens can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 221.

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