Westside Law Offices Head Over the Hill : Office Space Boom, Convenience Lure White-Collar Firms

To the law firm of Yusim, Stein & Hanger, it was an open-and-shut case. Several senior partners live in the San Fernando Valley, the firm’s prospective landlord offered the law firm part ownership in a nice new building and freeway access was more important than a fancy address.

So Yusim, Stein & Hanger, a litigation firm with 25 lawyers, will move next summer from Wilshire Boulevard to Encino, joining other law firms that have already traded the cachet of Century City or Beverly Hills for the cheaper rents and easy access of prime Valley office space.

“It’s the best thing I ever did, next to getting married and having kids,” said Ronald Berg, a partner in the small firm of Berg & Berg, which moved to Encino from Century City nearly two years ago. “I think quite a few people are doing it.”

Numbers are hard to come by, but both the professionals and Valley realty agents say the proliferation of office space in the Valley is drawing lawyers and a variety of other white-collar firms from some of the city’s high-rent precincts.

Big Eight Firms

Some have come seeking new business and to be closer to clients. Among these are many of the Big Eight accounting firms, which have opened or expanded Valley operations. Six months ago, for example, Deloitte Haskins & Sells moved from 1,500 square feet to 10,000 square feet, all within Warner Center.

Deloitte still has offices in Los Angeles, using its Woodland Hills facility to service Valley clients. But in September, the entire Los Angeles office of Manning, Selvage & Lee, a national public relations firm, moved from Santa Monica to Universal City, despite fears that a Valley address might carry a stigma.

“We gave that a lot of thought,” said Kirk Stewart, executive vice president in charge of the office. “Most of the major national public relations firms are along Wilshire Boulevard.”

‘Competitive Deal’

Stewart would not disclose terms but said Manning got “a very, very competitive deal” on 10,000 square feet in the high-rise 10 Universal City Plaza building, with a period of free rent as well.

And, as it turned out, he said, the company lost no clients and no employees. Not only was commuting eased for staffers who live in the Valley, but workers living across the mountains found the commute easier too, he said.

Gary Plotkin, managing partner in the small law firm of Plotkin & Rapoport, said he moved his firm to Encino from Westwood four years ago partly because most of his staff lived in the Valley. But Plotkin, who lives “at the top of Bel-Air,” found his commute slashed also.

Unlike the accounting firms, which moved to capture Valley clients, senior partners in some law firms that have moved say they didn’t do it because they hoped to find a lot of new business here, although the area has boomed. Most say they brought their existing business with them.

The movement has never been a tidal wave, as Westside real estate agents are quick to note.

“There’s no real trend,” said Gregg Gann, vice president in charge of the Westside office for Grubb & Ellis, the real estate firm. “We don’t see a lot of people pulling up stakes here and moving up to the Valley.”

Joel Kurtz, vice president in charge of Coldwell-Banker’s Beverly Hills office, said the same thing. But Daniel Niebrugge, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., said lots of law firms have been moving lately, to downtown as much as to the Valley.

Influx From the Westside

Lee Alpert, president of the 1,000-member San Fernando Valley Bar Assn., said he has noticed an influx of lawyers from the Westside. The association’s executive director, Susan Keating, said that about 3,800 attorneys are practicing in the Valley and that the number grows by 300 newly licensed lawyers yearly. She said the association doesn’t know how many additional lawyers relocate to the area.

Like most businesses that relocate across the mountains, the white-collar firms considered both economic and life-style factors.

Thanks to the glut of office space and the generally lower Valley rents, most found that they could get spacious, custom-designed offices cheap. The law firm of Smith & Smith moved to Encino two years ago after 13 years in Beverly Hills, mainly for cheap rents and freeway access, managing partner Barry Smith said.

He said the firm now has nice quarters for which it pays about $1.75 a square foot per month, 35 cents less than it might have to pay for comparable offices in Beverly Hills or Century City. And parking costs $50 to $70 a month per space, he said, versus $125 to $175 across the mountains.

Courthouse Access

Milton Yusim, managing partner of the firm that bears his name, also cited the importance of convenience to a variety of courthouses throughout the region.

“We’re a litigation firm,” he said from his current offices at Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in Beverly Hills. “We don’t have good freeway access where we are.”

Also, “it’s easier to get help--secretarial help, clerical help--in the Valley,” said Don Peterson of Knapp, Peterson & Clarke, a law firm whose members broke away from a mid-Wilshire firm four years ago and moved to a small building in Universal City.

Clerical help is cheaper too. Daniel M. Shapiro, an Encino real estate lawyer and Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for city controller this year, said a good legal secretary commands $2,500 or $2,600 a month in Beverly Hills or Century City. In the Valley it’s more like $1,800 to $2,200, he said, mainly because of the easier drive to work.

Secretaries aren’t the only ones who prefer to avoid the expensive torment of a long commute. So do the professionals in these firms, and their desire to work close to home was a major factor in their decisions, they said.

Relishes Quick Commute

Shapiro, for instance, moved his practice from Beverly Hills two years ago and relishes the quick commute from his Studio City home. But, he said, the transfer was not without its price.

“It’s not as easy to stay in touch with what’s happening in the business,” he said, acknowledging that the move makes it harder to be active in some professional associations and to see lawyer colleagues.

Also, he said, he worried at first about Valley attorneys having a second-class reputation, but that turned out not to be a problem.

“I think it works the other way,” said his partner, Tamila C. Jensen, who used to practice in Westwood. “A lot of clients don’t want to pay for all the falderal.”

Valley lawyers are cheaper, but not because they’re in the Valley, Shapiro said. Rather, they tend to be in small, specialized firms that charge less anyway, although the lower overhead does help keep prices down.

Another Firm

Monteleone & McCrory is another law firm moving to the Valley. Now on Wilshire near Fairfax, the 15-lawyer firm specializes in construction contract law and has clients worldwide. As of Jan. 1, it will move into 10 Universal Plaza because “first of all, it was a very good deal in a very high-quality building,” senior partner Stanton Belland said.

He said the firm likes the new building’s central location. Besides, “we don’t really represent off-the-street clients,” he said.

But if the Valley stigma has diminished, so have some of the rent savings. The firm of Smith & Smith says it is now being offered deals downtown comparable to what is available in the Valley, and since it represents large financial institutions, many of which are clustered downtown, it is considering a move.

The deal would be $2 a square foot per month, and a year’s free rent on a five-year lease. But Barry Smith worries that the firm might lose some of its loyal and competent staff.

“If we move, we’ll have our own shuttle bus,” he said.