2013
Sep. 11, 2013
Top 100
When the National Football League agreed last month to pay $765 million to settle a case filed in Philadelphia by injured former players, attorneys on all sides were from California. Tom Girardi of Girardi Keese was one of the lead plaintiff lawyers, Ron Olson of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP represented the league and the mediator was Layn Phillips from Irell & Manella LLP. Reading through these pages, you'll see the dynamic played out many times. Bruce Bennett of Jones Day represents Detroit in its historic bankruptcy; Brad Brian of Munger Tolles is defending Transocean in litigation in New Orleans stemming from the Gulf oil spill and Elizabeth Cabraser of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP is one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers in the oil spill litigation. The point is this: In virtually every piece of national litigation or major transaction, lawyers in California are playing major roles. This has been the case for a long time, but it's never unremarkable. There is no question that California's legal talent is the best in the world. One might expect excellence in intellectual property, as so much research and development take place here. You might also assume that we would be home to the best litigators in the world, as we have the most advanced and sprawling court and mediation systems anywhere. But nowadays California lawyers often take lead roles in corporate transactions and bankruptcy matters, work that traditionally would have gone to lawyers on Wall Street or in Delaware. Here are a few examples: Robert Townsend of Morrison & Foerster co-led a cross-border deal team advising Japan's SoftBank Corp. in its $21.6 billion purchase of 78 percent of Sprint Nextel Corp., the largest transaction to date in the ongoing restructuring of the U.S. telecommunications wireless industry. Jeffrey Vetter and Gordon Davidson of Fenwick & West advised Facebook in its $16 billion IPO, the second largest IPO in U.S. history. And Rick Kirkbride is representing the developer of the largest single-phase project in North America at the moment -- a resort in the Bahamas. Which brings us back to this list. Every year, the editors of the Daily Journal look at the work of hundreds of California lawyers. We receive nominations from law firms and nonprofits and universities -- and from clients. We also examine our archive of stories and talk to each reporter about the matters they've been covering. The point is to honor the attorneys whose work is having the widest impact, and not just on their career or their firm's bottom line. We seek to honor work that is changing an industry or the law or the society as a whole. And every year, we reach the difficult but exciting truth: There are far more than 100 leading lawyers in California. Deciding who won't make the list is our most difficult task. We don't pretend that this list is scientific or encompassing; it is a snapshot of a moment in time. It is a representative sample of the tremendous legal talent that California offers. As you read through these pages, we hope you'll agree.