March 3, 2003
THE DAILY JOURNAL
By Erik Cummins
SAN FRANCISCO – Coudert Brothers and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton appear to be going in opposite directions, with the larger Coudert Brothers slowly losing lawyers through layoffs and attrition in California and the smaller Sheppard Mullin gaining numerous laterals.
David Schnapf, a patent lawyer at Coudert Brothers for eight years, is the latest to leave the 700-lawyer firm, joining Sheppard Mullin Feb. 10.
Coudert Brothers’ shrinking San Francisco office, which has only 10 lawyers from a peak of 23 after partner defections and layoffs, was one factor in Schnapf’s decision to join the 350-lawyer Sheppard Mullin. The Los Angeles firm has 70 lawyers in San Francisco.
“Coudert [Brothers] as a whole is doing fine,” says Schnapf of the New York firm. “The small size [of the office] was a bit of a concern for me.”
The chance to establish Sheppard Mullin’s intellectual property practice in the Bay Area was another attraction. Schnapf is the firm’s first patent lawyer in the Bay Area, although it employs 20 intellectual-property lawyers elsewhere.
“They have a ready-made support structure,” Schnapf says of Sheppard Mullin’s intellectual-property group. “There’s an opportunity to build something here.”
Rob Christopher, the managing partner of Coudert Brothers’ Bay Area offices, says Schnapf felt it was important to “step up” and be a lead partner at Sheppard Mullin.
“He wants to start and run his own patent practice,” Christopher says.
The chemistry also wasn’t right between Schnapf and his former partners at Coudert Brothers, according to Christopher. The parting, however, was amicable.
“There’s no reason that when partners separate there should be all this sturm and drang and rancor,” Christopher says.
Schnapf agreed the parting was amicable. In fact, he is still working with colleagues there on a big transaction.
“I hope to continue working with them,” he says. “I wouldn’t characterize it as bad chemistry. I had good relations with a number of people.”
Sheppard Mullin has been on a hiring spree, picking up five lawyers last month in Washington, D.C., to open the firm’s first office outside California.
In January, seven lawyers joined its Southern California entertainment group, including former Walt Disney Co. general counsel Louis Meisinger. Another lawyer, Richard Babcock, left Morrison & Foerster’s Irvine office to join Sheppard Mullin.
In December, Sheppard Mullin added two employment lawyers in Santa Barbara, as well as antitrust partner David Garcia, who came from O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles.
Coudert Brothers’ biggest losses came last spring, when former rainmaker Ronald Katz and two other attorneys left for Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. It also pared lawyers last year as a result of the poor Bay Area economy.