From left, Jeffrey A. Sklar, Jennifer L. Borow, Andrew T. Kirsh and Ellia Thompson
three years ago, did more than $1 billion in deals during the past 18 months. Their
clients range from high net worth individuals to global financial services firms.
They often go toe-to-toe with large law firms in these transactions, and try to compete
on price to attract local clients.
"The vision was to create a transactional based law firm that could provide institutional
legal services at a price point that was more in line with the legal budget of the
vast majority of clients in this town," said Andrew T. Kirsh, a founding partner.
Earlier this year, Sklar Kirsh advised Hybrid Promotions LLC, an apparel supplier
in the sale of a majority stake to Altamont Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
As a part of the transaction, Altamont Capital led a majority recapitalization of
Fox Head Inc., a sports clothing brand.
Jennifer L. Borow, a partner, said the deal drew on various elements of corporate
practice.
"It is both an M&A deal and a joint venture," Borow said. "It had the added complexity
of being a three party deal."
"There were two companies being acquired and the formation of the holding company
that would own the companies under a common governing structure," she said.
In another matter, Sklar Kirsh advised The Abbey Co., a Garden Grove-based real estate
investment and management firm, in its $310 million portfolio recapitalization. The
Abbey Co. received bridge financing from Prime Finance to recapitalize its Southern
California portfolio. The assets securing the loan are about 3 million square feet
of commercial office, industrial and retail properties in several counties, including
San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles.
Elizabeth "Ellia" Thompson, a partner who joined the firm a year ago, handled the
land use aspects of the deal.
"Some of the properties were in small towns in California, where we hadn't done projects,"
Thompson said. "Time was of the essence, though often in land use, clients and their
land use attorneys have to give a certain amount of extra time padded into the process
because you're dealing with people at government agencies and they tend to have a
lot of matters in front of them."
Jeffrey A. Sklar, another founding partner, said the partners communicate to work
through challenges.
"As with most corporate M&A lawyers, the challenges are a limited amount of time to
get a transaction done and complexity," Sklar said. "Those things can create real
tension but we work together, get through the complexities and achieve all of our
respective goals for our clients."
The firm, which started with six lawyers, now has 20 lawyers. Many previously worked
at larger law firms, including, Loeb & Loeb LLP, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and O'Melveny
& Myers LLP.
"I think we've covered a lot of ground in a very short amount of time," Sklar said.
"That's a direct result of the attorneys we have in the firm."
- MELANIE BRISBON
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