Perkins Partners Birth Boutique
Source: Cal. Daily Journal
August 1, 2008
By Jill Redhage, Daily Journal Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - Two Perkins Coie partners in San Francisco jumped ship this week to form their own labor and employment and commercial litigation boutique, Rao Ongaro Burtt & Tiliakos.
David Ongaro and David Burtt will launch their new office in San Francisco Monday. Anthony Rao and Michael Tiliakos, formerly of Seyfarth Shaw, did the same for the new firm in New York earlier this week. The group will immediately begin hiring associates and staff for the firm, which is already handling the defense of more than 10 class action lawsuits.
"This is really a client-driven decision," said Ongaro. The firm had prospective clients weigh in on what kind and size of firm they wanted, said Rao. Clients had told the group that big firm billing rates were rising beyond their means. If the attorneys branched out and lowered their rates, the companies said they would happily keep them busy.
Ongaro and Rao said they expect to retain their full books of business.
Jay Rossiter, Perkins Coie's managing partner in San Francisco, said the departure of the office's only labor and employment partners was amicable.
"The office here in San Francisco does mostly commercial litigation and product liability, so we generally won't be competing with them, as they do single-plaintiff employment cases and some contingency work," Rossiter said.
Local labor and employment attorneys predicted that the new firm would find both successes and frustrations with its model.
"When you work in a general practice firm, it's like most large organizations - the decision-making is really sort of slow and blunted," said Tim Murphy, managing partner of labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips in San Francisco. He predicted that Rao Ongaro would enjoy agile decision-making, fewer client conflicts and steady work, because of the market-insensitive nature of their practice.
But there are perks to a larger platform, he said.
"It's great to be a labor and employment boutique if that means small numbers of lawyers, but I predict there will be some frustration and yearning for depth and breadth, too," Murphy said.
Charles Birenbaum, a labor and employment relations partner at Winston & Strawn and managing partner of its San Francisco office, said an advantage for boutiques is their ability to recruit attorneys who are really committed to that area of law. But boutiques lack the capacity to do other areas of work, Birenbaum said, which limits their ability to generate business. Nor can those attorneys enlist the support of colleagues from other practice areas on questions their own clients have.
"With a handful of attorneys, there's always going to be a resource issue," Birenbaum said.
But according to Ongaro, keeping labor and employment practices at the big firms is becoming less of an option, because clients expect that work to cost less.
Rao Ongaro's lower overhead costs and ability to use alternative fee arrangements gives it a leg up, said Rao.
Ongaro defends companies against employment-related torts and handles complex class action employment claims, while Burtt focuses on employee mobility claims such as trade secrets cases. Both also handle commercial litigation matters. Their clients have included AT&T Inc., Starbucks Corp., Labor Ready Inc. and Intel Corp.
Before joining Perkins Coie, Ongaro practiced at Schnader Harrison Segal & Law, now-defunct Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, and workers' compensation defense firm Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi. Burtt previously practiced with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Jackson Lewis.
Rao practiced in San Francisco before transferring to New York, first at Jackson Lewis, where he met Burtt, and later at Seyfarth Shaw. Tiliakos served as assistant corporation counsel with the New York City Law Department before going into private practice. Their clients include transport company DHL and logistics provider Exel.
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