February 25, 2002
THE CALIFORNIA LAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
SAN FRANCISCO – Arter & Hadden: BAY AREA OFFICE HIT HARD BY REAL ESTATE DEFECTIONS
In crushing blow to Arter & Hadden’s real estate practice in Northern California, five attorneys have defected from the Cleveland-based firm’s San Francisco office.
With the defections, Arter & Hadden is left with 25 percent fewer attorneys in San Francisco.
It also is left with just one Bay Area attorney, partner Neil Rubenstein, practicing real estate law.
The group, consisting of partners Eugene Chiarelli and Martin Orlick, of-counsel Terry Mollica and associates Renee Finley and Holly Shilliday, moved earlier this month to the local office of Los Angeles-based Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro.
Arter & Hadden is down to 14 attorneys in San Francisco. The partner-in-charge of that office, Kim West, says the firm will rebuild in the Bay Area.
“We’re in the process of recruiting extensively. We’ve got a couple of irons in the fire,” he says.
He added that the morale at the San Francisco office was strong, despite the defections.
“We’re enthused to work together to rebuild the office, and that’s no spin. That’s real,” he says.
Meanwhile, Jeffer Mangels will significantly bulk up its real estate practice with the hiring of Orlick, chair of Arter & Hadden’s San Francisco real estate group, and his team of lawyers.
The firm has 23 real estate lawyers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. It has 162 attorneys total, with 26 in Northern California.
Orlick, whose clients include Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America, says he chose Jeffer Mangels for its foresight to not invest too heavily in the technology market. The firm maintained its full-service business platform and did not lock itself into one discipline, he says.
“So many [Bay Area] firms over-committed and bet on the continued tech boom. They bet wrong,” Orlick says.
As for his former firm, Orlick, 53, says he departs the 387-attorney Arter & Hadden with no animosity.
“They said they’d leave the light on for me,” he says.