Lawrence E. Irell; Co-Founded L.A. Law Firm
Lawrence E. Irell, a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based law firm Irell & Manella who was known for his tax and corporate legal work and for expanding the firm from two lawyers to its current 200, has died at the age of 88.
Irell died Thursday in Rancho Mirage, Calif., his firm announced.
Born in Boston and educated at UCLA and the USC and Harvard law schools, Irell began his career working for the accounting firm of Eugene Berger & Co. In 1941, Irell joined his boss to form the law firm of Berger & Irell.
After Berger’s death in 1944, Irell asked attorney Arthur Manella, who was six years his junior and had also attended USC Law School, to join him. In 1949, the firm name was changed to Irell & Manella, a name that has been retained even though both men retired from actively managing it in 1982.
Tax experts, Irell and his new partner built their reputation on dealing with Internal Revenue Service and other tax agencies for such celebrities as Orson Welles, Lucille Ball, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, William Holden, Doris Day and producer Harry Cohn.
In the 1950s, the firm expanded into corporate securities and gained further national recognition by taking Southern California’s Mattel Corp. public.
Guided by Irell and Manella, who died of cancer Jan. 16, 1997, at the age of 79, the firm steadily expanded to provide legal advice on intellectual property, litigation, technology, new media, real estate, bankruptcy and entertainment, as well as continuing tax and corporate securities work. Among its current clients are Hewlett-Packard, AT&T;, Compaq Computer and Viacom.
Morgan Chu, a co-managing partner of Irell & Manella, called Irell “a lawyer’s lawyer . . . [who] created a law firm built on an unwavering dedication to creativity, excellence and delivering results for clients.”
Irell was also active in professional, educational and charitable organizations. He was a former president of the Beverly Hills Bar Assn. and a board member of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. A lecturer at USC, he was founding chairman of the UCLA Board of Visitors and a key fund-raising executive of the UCLA Foundation.
In honor of his work for his alma mater and Southern California, the UCLA Alumni Assn. gave Irell its 1971 professional achievement award and its 1979 Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year Achievement Award.
A board member of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Irell was also active in the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Centers Assn. of Los Angeles, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Hope for Hearing Research Foundation, the Metropolitan Recreation and Youth Services Planning Council, the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center and United Way.
He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and their three children, Stephen, Eugene and Lauren, and four grandchildren.
Colleagues said funeral services for Irell will be private.
