December 4, 2007

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Rebecca U. Cho

LOS ANGELES – Longtime Heller Ehrman partner Gary W. Maeder has departed for San Francisco-based rival Morrison & Foerster, further depleting Heller’s ranks.

The move gives Morrison & Foerster a Los Angeles presence in tax law while stripping Heller Ehrman of its remaining tax law partner in Los Angeles. Maeder started at his new firm Monday.

Maeder is the sixth partner to leave Heller Ehrman in California after the firm cut 65 administrative staff members in October during rumors of a slowdown in profits.

First Since October
Patricia Gillette, a veteran labor and employment partner at Heller Ehrman’s San Francisco office, left in October for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Maeder also is the first Los Angeles partner to leave Heller Ehrman after the late October departure of Los Angeles office managing partner Jerry Marks to Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

“It’s unusual for Heller. They were never a firm that generally lost a lot of lawyers,” said legal recruiter Alan Miles, who was not involved in the move. “It’s a very close-knit culture.”

‘Follow the Opportunities’
Nancy Sher Cohen, the L.A. office’s new managing partner, said Maeder’s departure is separate from Marks’ move.

Cohen said she had known of Maeder’s plans to leave the firm months in advance.
“We always hate to see anybody go, particularly someone who is a quality person like Gary Maeder,” she said. “We want him to follow the opportunities, and we understand.”

Maeder said his departure from Heller Ehrman did not have anything to do with the possibility of the firm having a down year.

“Heller is a great place, a great firm. It was very hard to leave,” he said. “It was just peculiar to my tax practice and the desire to be with a larger group of corporate attorneys here in L.A.”

Maeder, 57, formerly practiced in Heller Ehrman’s Los Angeles office for 11 years, serving as the co-chair of the firm’s tax group for a three-year period ending in 2005. His clients include Adelante Capital Management, Lockheed Federal Credit Union, Marketocracy and World Vision International.
Maeder said he joined Morrison & Foerster because the firm has a stronger corporate practice in the Los Angeles office than his former firm.

“It’s nice to walk down the hall and have more people to work with in the corporate area, in particular,” Maeder said.

The move leaves Heller Ehrman with one tax attorney in Los Angeles – of-counsel Joseph Burdett, who has been with the firm since 1996. At the same time, Maeder’s joining creates tax capabilities in Morrison & Foerster’s 100-attorney Los Angeles office, which had been without a tax attorney for a year. Morrison & Foerster has 45 attorneys firmwide in the tax group.

Miles, of the attorney placement firm Alan Miles & Associates, said the string of departures and the staff layoff at Heller may signal that the firm is not doing as well financially as its competitors.

Heller Ehrman has another Southern California tax lawyer, Richard Parker, in the San Diego office and 24 tax attorneys firmwide. Cohen said the tax group’s needs in the Los Angeles region will continue to function through a network of lawyers located in various offices.

“We operate all of our groups by practice group – the practice group operates nationally and internationally,” she said. “We will get our tax work done as we did before by people throughout the firm.”

Maeder specializes in tax planning and controversy services to public and closely held companies.
He graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1975. He worked at Kindel & Anderson until the firm dissolved in 1996. He moved to Morrison & Foerster that year with a group of 12 attorneys.
The move was brokered by lawyer placement firm Watanabe, Nason, Schwartz & Lippman.

Morrison & Foerster has a thousand attorneys in 18 offices.

Heller Ehrman, with 55 attorneys in Los Angeles, has 700 attorneys in 13 offices.

Heller Ehrman Loses Longtime Partner to Rival