Attorneys Split From Firm to Specialize in Business Bankruptcies
A new law firm about to open shop in Newport Beach will be dedicated to the proposition that business is good when business is bad.
Lobel & Winthrop, which opens its doors Monday, will specialize in business bankruptcies, reportedly the largest Orange County-based law firm to do so.
The eight-lawyer office--which is splitting off from its parent firm--plans to represent insolvent corporations--although, in cases that are very large or very complex, individuals also will be taken on as clients, said William N. Lobel, a partner in the firm.
Orange County already has local bankruptcy specialists, and a handful of Los Angeles-based firms handle debtor-creditor work through their branch offices here. But even the biggest of these insolvency practices typically has only three or four lawyers.
Lobel & Winthrop will be the largest boutique-type practice that limits its work to major bankruptcy cases.
Standard Rates
The attorneys will charge from $110 to $260 per hour--fairly standard billing rates at large Southern California law firms.
Lobel & Winthrop’s founders are amicably splitting off from Newport Beach’s McKittrick, Jackson, DeMarco & Peckenpaugh, a 40-attorney office that represents land developers.
McKittrick, Jackson, in turn, came to Orange County four years ago when its partners seceded from Fulop & Hardee, a major Beverly Hills law firm, shortly before the Fulop firm was plunged into receivership amid a load of crushing debt and hundreds of uncollected receivables.
Since then, McKittrick, Jackson has done very well, with annual billings ranging from $10 million to $12 million. Clients include the William Lyon Co., the Bren Co., the Irvine Co., Shappell Industries, Fieldstone Development, Southmark Pacific Co., owner of Anaheim Hills, and Arvida Corp., developer of Coto de Casa.
McKittrick, Jackson will not re-establish a bankruptcy department, said F. Scott Jackson, president of the McKittrick firm.
He said that the bankruptcy lawyers’ decision to break away came because other law firms hesitated to refer debtor work to McKittrick, fearing that the firm would lure away their non-debtor clients as well.
Now, Jackson said, “we’ll refer our bankruptcy work” to Lobel & Winthrop, and Lobel & Winthrop “will refer their (commercial) business to us.”
The eight bankruptcy lawyers have represented about 20% of the McKittrick firm’s total yearly billings.
Major bankruptcy clients have included All Season’s Resorts, the Creditors’ Committee in Altec Lansing, the trustee in Sambo’s Restaurants Inc., Stadium Motorsports and developer Equidon Cos. and its Equidon Constructors subsidiary.
