November 14, 2005

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Drew Combs

LOS ANEGLES – Loeb & Loeb announced that Bruce Ishimatsu has joined the litigation department as a partner. Ishimatsu comes to the firm from the Los Angeles office of Bryan Cave, where he was a partner for 11 years.

While he “liked the people and culture at Bryan Cave,” Ishimatsu said he wanted to practice at a smaller firm. “Bryan Cave continues to grow,” Ishimatsu said. “It is double the size it was when I began there.”

Loeb & Loeb has more than 200 attorneys in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Nashville. St. Louis-based Bryan Cave has more than 700 attorneys and 15 offices. There are 60 attorneys in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Ishimatsu was attracted to Loeb & Loeb because of the firm’s “depth of experience in business litigation and intellectual property.” Ishimatsu’s practice covers a wide range of business litigation including disputes surrounding automotive industry franchises, unfair competition, trade secrets and antitrust issues. Clients include Japanese automobile and motorcycle distributors and consumer electronic companies. Ishimatsu said he looks forward expanding his practice at Loeb & Loeb to encompass more intellectual property matters.

“We have about 50 attorneys in our litigation department in Los Angeles,” said Lance N. Jurich, co-managing partner of the Loeb’s national litigation section. “Bruce’s practice fits nicely with that group of lawyers.” Jurich said that the litigation practice along with the firm’s corporate and real estate practices have been areas of growth at Loeb & Loeb for the past several years. “We are not trying to become a 1,000-lawyer firm, but we are in a growth mode,” Jurich said. “All the partners know each other, and we like that.”

Also in the Los Angeles office, Thomas N. Lawson, a former partner, rejoined the tax and wealth services department as of-counsel. Lawson was previously chairman in the tax department.

In 1908, brothers Edwin and Joseph Loeb founded the firm in Los Angeles. Loeb & Loeb merged with the New York-based law firm Hess Segall Guterman Pelz Steiner & Barovick in 1986.

The “history and very strong reputation” of Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles also attracted Ishimatsu to the firm.

Ishimatsu is a California native, having grown up in the Coachella Valley. He attended Pomona College and Georgetown Law School.

Before joining Bryan Cave in 1994, Ishimatsu was a partner at the Los Angeles office of Kelley Drye & Warren, which was closed in 2003.

“I am excited to be at Loeb,” Ishimatsu said. “This is a terrific operation, and I fit in well.”