Smith Law Firm Leaves Valley for Finance Hub
Many lawyers have moved to the San Fernando Valley in recent years. Smith & Smith, for example, moved to Encino from Beverly Hills.
But sometimes lawyers move out of the Valley too. An example? Well, the firm of Smith & Smith again. On Saturday, it left its quarters in Encino for space downtown, for which it signed a $3.5-million lease over the next 10 years.
“We represent financial institutions throughout the United States,” explained Barry Smith, a senior partner, “And the hub of the financial district is downtown.”
The move deals a sharp blow to the Valley’s budding legal community, because, with 23 lawyers overall, Smith & Smith was among the Valley’s largest firms.
With roughly 150 banks and other financial institutions as clients, the firm had 16 lawyers and seven paralegals at its Ventura Boulevard headquarters. It has four lawyers and a paralegal in Costa Mesa and three lawyers and a paralegal in San Francisco.
Not a Mass Exodus
With its departure, the largest Valley law firm apparently is Yusim, Stein & Hanger, a litigation firm that moved to Encino from Wilshire Boulevard last fall. It has about 25 lawyers. Horvitz, Levy & Amerian, a leading appellate specialist based in Encino, has 18 lawyers at its Encino office and expects to add another in January.
As evidenced by the arrival of Yusim, Stein & Hanger, the move by Smith & Smith does not appear to be part of a mass exodus from the Valley.
“As far as any trend, I don’t see one,” said Haig Kehiayan, president of the San Fernando Valley Bar Assn., which has about 1,000 members.
Despite the firm’s conservative clientele, even senior partners at Smith & Smith often came to work in the Valley without neckties. But now that the firm is downtown, a dress code has been imposed.
“I looked like I belonged in Encino,” Smith said. “Downtown, we would stand out like a sore thumb.”
Smith & Smith moved to Encino from Beverly Hills in 1983, part of a steady stream of smaller firms that have made the switch to the Valley, usually fleeing high rents and long commutes across the Santa Monica Mountains.
The firm has grown fast. In 1983, it had eight lawyers. Now it has seven partners and 15 associates.
Secretarial and parking costs also were lower in the Valley, the transplanted attorneys say. But, according to realty experts, some of the real-estate cost differential has disappeared.
Smaller Valley Price Edge
William Ripberger, a commercial leasing specialist with Cushman & Wakefield in Sherman Oaks, said the Valley’s price edge has narrowed “dramatically.” Prime office space in the Valley is leased for $2 to $2.20 a square foot per month, he said.
Downtown leasing agents say prime space there rents for about $2.50. And, although parking is costlier downtown, mass transit is more convenient.
Smith said his firm also was drawn to its new home by the building’s advanced construction, which made it easy to install more computers and connect the firm’s three offices electronically.
But the big factor for Smith & Smith was its desire to be in the region’s financial hub. The firm moved into 15,000 square feet of space in the International Tower at 888 South Figueroa St., leaving behind 6,500 square feet at 16633 Ventura Blvd. To allow for growth, it has an option for more space at its new headquarters, which is being leased for about $2.00 per square foot.
“That’s a good deal,” said James Travers of Travers Realty, a mid-Wilshire firm that represents office tenants. “That’s probably cheaper then they could get in the Valley.”
Smith, who co-founded the firm with Scott Smith (they are not related), said one factor not involved in the move is the stigma that some lawyers complain is associated with practicing in the Valley.
“When we started out, it bothered me,” he said. But, as Andrew Stein, a partner in Yusim, Stein & Hanger, put it, “I don’t think your location has very much to do with your practice. People are more interested in your performance.”
