White House Lawyer, Others to Form Firm : Law: TV, radio host Hugh Hewitt is among 9 leaving Pettis, Tester, Kruse & Krinsky. He defended developers in the gnatcatcher fight.
Hugh Hewitt, a former White House assistant counsel and defender of developers in the California gnatcatcher battle, is leaving his law firm to form a new practice with eight other lawyers from the same firm.
The seven partners and two associates said they will leave Pettis, Tester, Kruse & Krinsky on Friday to practice corporate, real estate and land use law. The new firm, Hewitt & McGuire, has leased office space in Newport Beach.
“For most of us, it was a desire to scratch an entrepreneurial itch,” said John Yeager, one of the partners who is leaving.
Both of Pettis, Tester’s lawyers specializing in endangered species are joining Hewitt & McGuire, so Yeager said it is likely that the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California will employ his new firm.
In a similar move six years ago, Pettis, Tester made history by becoming the first firm to spin off from legal giant Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
“I think that, like us six-plus years ago, this is a group that liked one another, and they wanted to do their own thing,” said Bruce Tester, a senior partner.
He said the firm, which will now have 31 lawyers, may add some associates but will not replace all nine who are leaving. Their departure, he said, “will bring us to a size we ought to be in this recession.”
Besides Hewitt and Yeager, those leaving Pettis, Tester this week are partners Dean Dunn-Rankin, Charles S. Exon, Jay Palchikoff, Paul Rowe and William Twomey. The associates are Andrew Hartzell and Mark McGuire.
Hewitt is well known. He served for five years in the Reagan Administration and is a former executive director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. He is co-host of KCET-TV’s “Life and Times” and hosts a radio talk show on KFI (AM 640).
Hewitt’s senior producer at KCET, Martin Burns, describes him as “a real thinking conservative with heart.”
A little more than a year ago, a group of four lawyers set out from Latham & Watkins’ Orange County office to practice real estate and land use law in a small-firm environment. Partners of that firm, Corey, Croudace, Dietrich & Dragun, said success has been easier than they expected.
“Developers were skimping on their legal services because they were so expensive,” said Debra M. Dietrich. “We’ve been able to offer a lower cost. It’s very hard in a 600-person firm to send out a bill with the right number.”
