ORANGE COUNTY

When former Orange County Rep. Jerry Patterson was deciding which law firm to join after being voted out of office in November, the offer from Leff & Mason stood out from the pack. The partnership, which specializes in representing financial institutions from its offices in Beverly Hills and Washington, wanted to open an Orange County branch.

Patterson joined the firm in January and on July 19 will open the new Costa Mesa office.

That was just “the fringe benefit” that Patterson needed. After losing his congressional seat in a particularly bitter race to Republican Robert Dornan, Patterson, a Democrat, still is weighing a comeback move and considers a business office in the district a distinctive plus.

“It offers a certain political visibility,” Patterson said.

However, Patterson doesn’t expect the new office to change his work habits much. He’ll still be “bicoastal,” spending most of his time in the firm’s Washington office and at his suburban Virginia home. He expects to fly to California twice a month and spend about eight days each month in the Costa Mesa office and Santa Ana condominium.

The new office won’t change Patterson’s responsibilities either. He’ll still be representing primarily California companies, particularly financial and real estate institutions, as a lawyer and lobbyist on Capitol Hill and in board rooms. Clients already include Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach and Great Western Savings and Loan Assn. of Beverly Hills.

During his 10 years in Congress, Patterson was a member of the House Banking Committee and the chairman of the subcommittee on international development institutions and finance, which reviews operations of international financial institutions.