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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg has expanded again, this time to the West Coast. A Los Angeles, Calif., office opened today with six attorneys from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
Joining the new office are partners Stephen Mick, Kevin Rising, Jason Karlov, Kyle Kirwan, and Scott Witlin. David Allen, former managing partner of Akin Gump’s Los Angeles office, will join as managing partner of the office after finishing a pending client matter.
With the addition of the Los Angeles office, Barnes & Thornburg now has 12 offices around the country, four of which are in Indiana.
Barnes & Thornburg managing partner Alan Levin said moving into the Los Angeles market has been a strategic priority and these attorneys gave the firm the rare opportunity to expand there.
He said the firm has been eyeing that market for about three or four years and started doing the legwork on possibly opening up an office in 2009. The Los Angeles market was attractive to the firm because it is the second biggest metropolitan area in the country and a lot of litigation occurs there. Litigation is a big part of Barnes & Thornburg’s practice. Also, they have a lot of clients in other offices doing business out there, and they felt they could serve those clients better by having an office in Los Angeles.
Levin said things started to heat up quickly toward the end of last year after some exploratory visits and other things of that nature, and the firm became more confident that opening the Los Angeles office would be a good move for the firm.
He pointed to the city’s business climate, with a lot of corporations and businesses similar to those in the Midwest, and said it seemed to be a perfect fit.
With the opening of the new office, Barnes & Thornburg now has a practice in California with experience in litigation, labor and employment, entertainment, media, and intellectual property. The new attorneys join a firm that has “successfully navigated through the recent economic downturn,” according to Allen, the future managing partner of the office. “My colleagues and I are eager to join the firm during a time of such extraordinary growth and success.”
While some firms have struggled due to the economy, Barnes & Thornburg has grown. In 2009, the firm opened new offices in Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Delaware; and Minneapolis. The Minneapolis expansion was the result of acquiring the Parsinen Law Firm. The expansions are a part of Barnes & Thornburg’s focus on deepening its core practice groups nationally.
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