Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP

San Diego-based Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP, or CGS3 for short, is guided by an old commercial real estate adage: time kills all deals.

"Timing is everything," partner Sean Southard said. "We really strive to give clients the advantage in terms of getting deals done."

Founded in 2013 by former Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP partners Southard, Thomas Crosbie, Dana Schiffman, Ray Gliner and Craig Swanson, the idea was to create a nimble firm capable of scaling up -- and down -- to cater to marquee commercial real estate clients looking to act quickly and efficiently.

"What we wanted to do is create a new generation commercial real estate firm that would be identified not so much as by headcount, but more in terms of the class of legal representation," Southard said.

Now 23 attorneys strong, the firm opened a Los Angeles office last summer. David Swartz, former general counsel for Arden Realty Inc., heads the office, which consists of him and one associate. They're hoping to expand to a team of 10 attorneys in the next two years.

Recently Swartz represented the Doheny Eye Institute in a $110 million sale of a 150,000-square-foot medical facility in Boyle Heights to the University of Southern California.

The deal notably ended enduring acrimony between the two parties: allied from the 1970s, the collaboration between USC and the institute halted in 2011 when they faced off in a legal battle over renovation and permitting issues. The partnership bit the dust in 2012.

Swartz chalked it up to "two major players that each felt their side was in the right." He assuaged the tension by crafting a mutually beneficial deal that ended with USC getting ownership of the building located on its campus, which it had long wanted.

Because of the lean structure of the firm, Swartz was the only one handling the case. As a result, "You really feel like you're making a distinct difference in the clients' lives," he explained.

Another partner, Fernando Landa, secured an unusual win for client Trigild, where he once served as general counsel.

Landa was able to close a receivership sale of a $35.5 million medical office property in Encino, getting a title company to agree to insure the transaction even though the owner of the property not only contested the sale, but appealed the order approving it.

The situation, he said, is "highly unusual," given courts' typical unwillingness to approve sales against owners' wills and title companies typical aversion to unsettled transactions.

Landa, who said he has closed hundreds of receivership sales, said his success has a lot to do with the close personal and working relationships he has with the title companies, echoing Swartz.

"I think the title companies trust that we're doing things by the book and that these sales won't get overturned on appeal or won't get approved by the courts," he said, pointing to his high success rate.

According to Southard, these deals reflect the founders' initial vision for the firm as a concentration of all-seasoned attorneys.

Further setting the boutique apart from larger law firms is its willingness to negotiate alternative fee structures and eschewing individual books of business.

"Every client that we have is a firm client; no one partner claims ownership of any particular relationship," Southard said.

He added, "We make our clients comfortable with that by giving them the same experience in terms of work product quality, turnaround time and negotiation style, so that they're comfortable working with any attorney here."

-- Lila Seidman