April 12, 2012

LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL

By Casey Sullivan

LOS ANGELES – Proskauer Rose LLP snagged the chairman of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s labor and employment practice, the firm announced Wednesday.

Kenneth D. Sulzer, who had practiced at Seyfarth during his entire 26-year career, began work in Proskauer’s Los Angeles office Wednesday among a group of some 150 labor and employment lawyers the firm employs across the globe. He described his first day as an “out of body” experience.

“Proskauer is one of the premier labor and employment practices nationwide,” Sulzer said. “They had a solid practice here in California and were very interested in growing and in expanding in California and in particular in the class action area in labor and employment.”

Upon leaving Seyfarth, Sulzer represented big name companies like Swissport USA Inc., Windsor Healthcare, RR Donnelley and Ready Pac Foods, Inc., primarily in wage and hour class actions. At Proskauer, Sulzer will act as co-chair of Proskauer’s California L&E department along with Anthony J. Oncidi, and co-chair of the firm’s national class/collective action group.

“We are getting a significant number of class action cases in the wage and hour field, but we think this will super-charge our efforts in that regard,” Oncidi said. “Ken is really one of the pioneers of defending employers in wage and hour class actions.”

The move, industry watchers say, reflects a broader trend that has found many major law firms looking to expand their labor and employment groups after downsizing significantly in that practice area shortly before the recession. Law firms like O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP scaled back their labor and employment groups because those lawyers’ billable rates were lower than the top tier rates in other practice areas. But now, with the post-recession economy weighing heavy on firms’ transactional and real estate practices, firms are trying to claw back labor and employment talent, legal experts say.

Some recent prominent lateral moves include employment specialist Catherine Conway’s jump to Gibson Dunn from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles and L&E partner Wendy Lazerson’s jump to Sidley Austin LLP from Bingham McCutchen LLP where she once served as co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment group.

“There has been more lateral partner movement in the labor and employment bar within California in the past six months as there was in the previous three-year period,” said recruiter Larry Watanabe of Watanabe Nason LLC in an email.

Recruiters Watanabe and Ken Schwartz represented Proskauer on Sulzer’s move.

Raymond R. Kepner, the Los Angeles managing partner of Seyfarth Shaw, did not return a call seeking comment.