Law and Party: Celebrating 100 Years
The attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, one of the city’s oldest and most prestigious law firms, took a legal holiday of sorts Friday in order to celebrate the company’s 100th year in business.
Some 500 attorneys and their clients first mingled at the bar before heading into a three-course lunch at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel at which U. S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Gov. George Deukmejian, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas and Mayor Tom Bradley each commended the milestone.
Bradley presented Norman B. Barker, the firm’s executive committee chairman, with an official city commendation.
Of the firm’s impressive client list, Deukmejian cracked: “In fact, I even heard (the firm represents) a leading actress who slapped a policeman in Beverly Hills.” Later, Bruce A. Toor, a partner at the firm, said that the firm did not represent Zsa Zsa Gabor in that instance.
“That’s a very impressive feat,” remarked O’Connor of the anniversary, after being introduced by former U. S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith, now a partner at Gibson.
She then reminded the attorneys that when she applied for a position with the company in 1952, as a third-year law student at Stanford Law School where she was at the top of her class, she received a job offer as a legal secretary.
She was pleased to note that things have changed: Of the 709 lawyers employed in 17 offices worldwide by the firm today, 204 are women.
To mark the anniversary, the company has established a $2-million charitable foundation.
“Actually, this looks fun for a lawyer’s party,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, who attended with her husband, L.A. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.
Councilman John Ferraro was also a guest.
Guests ranged from aerospace (Ralph Hawes, senior vice president at General Dynamics), film (David Handelman, senior vice president at 20th Century Fox), banking (Bram Goldsmith, chief executive officer of City National Bank), food (Carl N. Karcher, chairman of Carl Karcher Enterprises, commonly known as the Carl’s Jr. restaurants), sports (Marjorie L. Everett, chairman of Hollywood Park) and the arts (Frederick M. Nicholas, chairman of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee).
