December 15, 2000
THE CALIFORNIA LAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
By Tamara Sco
LOS ANGELES – Robert M. Jason, head of the tax department at Century City’s Troop Steuber Pasich Reddick & Tobey, announced that he will not be joining his colleagues in their merger with Washington, D.C.’s Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
He is establishing a tax practice for Kirkland & Ellis’ Los Angeles office instead.
“An incredible opportunity fell into my lap, and I would have taken it one way or another,” Jason said.
He explained that his decision to join Kirkland & Ellis had nothing to do with the Akin Gump merger.
On Monday, the Daily Journal reported that Akin Gump was acquiring one-half of the 120 attorneys at Troop Steuber, including the six-attorney tax group that Jason heads.
The remaining Troop Steuber attorneys have not announced their plans, although Akin Gump has promised to provide transitional services for any remaining displaced attorneys.
Jason will move to his new firm on Jan. 2, the same day Troop Steuber closes its doors for good.
Apparently, the deal between Jason and Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis had been a while in the making.
“We’ve been having discussions with Bob [Jason] for some time, but his responsibilities to his existing firm kept him from coming over,” Jeffrey S. Davidson, managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis’ Los Angeles office, said. “We very much wanted somebody of his caliber, and they’re very rare.”
Jason, who has an estimated book of business of $1.4 million, represents movie and television production companies in leverage buyouts, mergers and acquisitions and high-yield funding. He also represents high-profile directors, writers and actors in their personal tax matters.
Jason would not provide specific client names.
Troop Steuber is known for its glitzy client roster, which includes Hollywood giants Lucas Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and the Walt Disney Co.
At Kirkland & Ellis, Jason is establishing the firm’s first West Coast tax practice. The Los Angeles office farms out its tax work to other firm offices. “We found it more and more practical to have an on-site tax adviser for our growing transactional practice on the West Coast,” said Jeffrey T. Sheffield, a senior Chicago partner in the firm’s 30-attorney tax group.
Jason joined Troop Steuber as an associate in 1984, when the firm was known as Hill Wynne Troop & Meisinger. He became a partner in 1988 and, at the same time, head of its tax group.
Before joining Troop Steuber, Jason was a tax associate at Los Angeles’ O’Melveny & Myers from 1981 to 1984 following graduation from Harvard Law School.
“Bob Jason is a terrific tax attorney with a unique niche in the entertainment industry,” C.N. Franklin Reddick, Troop Steuber’s co-managing partner, said. “Bob is an internationally recognized expert on taxation in the entertainment industry.”
Reddick added that he was confident Jason made the right professional decision to join Kirkland & Ellis.
Kirkland & Ellis is a full-service firm of 770 attorneys with offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
It opened the Los Angeles outpost in 1990. With 72 attorneys, the office’s clients include Brown & Williamson, DirectTV Inc. and Hughes Electronics Corp. Larry Watanabe of Watanabe & Nason, a Los Angeles-based legal recruiting firm, brokered the deal for Kirkland & Ellis.