Alumni leave big-firm life to open small — and thriving — boutiques
-By Lori Craig
More than four years out of law school, Neal Salisian ’05 was a senior-level associate in a prominent international law firm and had a growing business litigation practice. But increasingly he was troubled by having to turn certain clients away.
Salisian was forced to say no to business from new companies with complex legal problems that couldn’t meet the expense of a big firm or didn’t require its level of resources. Salisian wasn’t sure these companies could go somewhere else and find the expert services they needed at a price they could afford.
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| Richard Lee '02 and Neal Salisian '05 |
An entrepreneur at heart, Salisian saw an opportunity.
“I realized there’s a market out there of these growing businesses that have complex legal needs but do not have the resources or the experience to deal with them,” he says. “These small businesses are priced out of the big firms, or perhaps don’t have a matter that requires the approach of a big firm, but do have matters that might be beyond the capacity of a sole practitioner. I figured that over time, this could be a good opportunity to go out on my own and fill this need.”
Salisian called Richard Lee ’02, with whom he’d worked on a couple cases at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and six months later, on May 1, 2010, they opened the doors of Salisian Lee, a boutique business litigation firm located in downtown Los Angeles.
Stepping out
Two months earlier, Sam Yebri ’06 had left behind the prestige of big-firm life. The son of two dentists who run a small practice and the founder of two nonprofit organizations, Yebri knew even in law school that he would some day strike out on his own. Following a clerkship for U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz, Yebri worked at Jones Day and Proskauer Rose before making the leap.
“I came to the realization that it was difficult to get meaningful experience as an associate,” Yebri says. “I wanted control over my own destiny. I went to trial at Proskauer Rose and ran the case from start to finish and the result was great for the client and the firm, and I had the confidence that I could do this. I want to work with clients from start to finish, from retainer to settlement.”
Yebri partnered with Alexander M. Merino to start Merino Yebri, a small litigation firm in Century City.
A wealth of experience
Richard B. Kendall ’79, one of Los Angeles’s top attorneys, also recently went his own way. As the economy was sputtering in 2008, Kendall, who was a litigation partner with a thriving practice and top media and technology clients at Irell & Manella, was hearing from his clients that it was time for a change.
"It started with a sense that, even for very sophisticated matters, the large firm wasn’t always the best place to be for the client,” Kendall says. “I’ve had lots of conversations with clients over the years expressing their perspective that they loved working with me and my team of lawyers, but weren’t that happy with the constraints on us because we were part of a larger institution.”
Kendall, along with Irell Partners Laura W. Brill and Robert N. Klieger, founded Kendall, Brill & Klieger, a litigation boutique that opened on May 1, 2009, and now comprises three partners, eight associates and, when needed, additional contract lawyers.
Finding a new way
The smaller shops offer new levels of autonomy and client interaction that Lee finds particularly rewarding.
“Until it becomes your own, it’s hard to take 100 percent ownership. Here, we are the ones with the final say and we take responsibility, and I welcome that,” Lee says. “You absolutely get to know the cases inside out; you get to know the client inside out. Our clients get in contact with us all the time, and there’s a level of trust that’s built there.”
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| Sam Yebri '06 |
Kendall sees numerous advantages to practicing in a smaller firm, including fewer conflict-of-interest issues and better professional opportunities for younger lawyers. But the biggest bonus may be for the clients.
“There’s a gap in the marketplace now that used to be occupied by a number of flourishing boutiques,” Kendall says. “The gap we’re trying to fill is for legal services at a level of quality that’s the highest you can get in even the best law firms, and in an environment that promotes maximal efficiency and has significantly lower overhead; therefore, we are able to do it at a reduced rate.”
Yebri, Salisian and Lee are enjoying the flexibility to offer flat-fee arrangements and partial contingencies, an impossibility at larger firms.
“It’s nice to not be bound to the rigid fee structures,” Salisian says. “Whoever comes to our door, we can do everything in our power to help them.”
Although the economic downturn provided an opportunity for these alumni to hang out their shingles, it was not the defining consideration. It remains to be seen whether these firms are part of a larger trend in the legal industry or a natural phase of growth in the boutique market.
“It’s unclear how, over the longer term, the big firms will respond to the downturn and whether the clients will get more insistent on changes in terms of rate flexibility and the use of young lawyers,” says Bryant Danner, a visiting professor of law at USC who is examining the evolution of large law firms. “It’s encouraging to see movement in the clients demanding changes. An increasing number of lawyers are doing just what these alumni have done. The reason these things are working out is these lawyers were well-trained, could bring clients with them and give these clients a lot of immediate, personalized, high-quality services with less expensive costs.”
Acknowledging their roots
Although he’s settling into the role of boutique litigator, Yebri wouldn’t trade his big firm experience.
“I worked with amazingly smart, experienced lawyers, some of whom really enjoyed teaching associates, and I otherwise couldn’t be doing what I am now,” he says. “I learned from the big firms, because you have such tight deadlines, you have to get good work done quickly. And it’s been a valuable skill.”
Salisian, a veteran of Morgan Lewis, and Lee, who worked at Holland & Knight prior to stints with Morgan Lewis and Hunt Ortmann, note that they aren’t in competition with their former employers, and that the referrals go both ways.
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| Richard B. Kendall '79 |
“We earned their trust, and we trust them, so they’re really the first people who give us a call and vice versa,” Lee says.
“Coexistence is not only possible but desirable,” Danner says. “Big firms are always going to be needed when you have a huge litigation or major transaction that requires not only a high level of expertise but a high volume of people. General counsel who are farming out business will be thoughtful about choosing between big firms or smaller firms populated with lawyers they already know.”
Taking the plunge
It took no small amount of ambition and dedication for these alumni to leave the larger firms. Attorneys considering a similar move should above all want to own their own business, Salisian says.
“These past six months have been by far the hardest I’ve worked, but they’ve also been the most pleasurable,” he says. “Every day is a new adventure, and whatever challenges do come, they aren’t as daunting because it’s your business.”
Yebri and the others also turned to the USC Law alumni network for advice and support. He attended a presentation at the law school on starting one’s own firm, organized by recent sole practitioner Aaron Aftergood ’05, and then did some modern and traditional marketing, with announcement cards, e-mail blasts and phone calls. He also is part of a small group of young attorneys with sole or small practices. Group members turn to each other for business advice and referrals.
For an experienced and respected litigator like Kendall, the risk in moving on was small. All of his Irell clients (whom he’d brought to the firm) followed him to KBK. And Lee, Salisian and Yebri say that in the months they spent preparing to open their doors, the risk level diminished as their groundwork increased. Today, they are reaping the rewards. The firms are growing faster than anticipated and the founders expect to hire more attorneys in the coming months.
Kendall says his firm will continue to grow, but that the appropriate size remains a work in progress. Given his success, does he wish he’d made the move sooner?
“A lot of people ask me that question, and I think the answer is, maybe so, but I had a wonderful set of experiences leading up to this, so I don’t have any regrets,” Kendall says. “After I left the U.S. Attorney’s Office [in 1985, following a five-year stint as assistant U.S. Attorney], I had a series of wonderful partners and great opportunities in outstanding larger firms, and great support that they provided for my practice. Sure, it might have been fun to have started this latest endeavor a few years earlier because I’m having such a wonderful time doing it, but I was having a terrific time where I was, too.”
-As seen in the Winter 2011 USC Law Deliberations
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