New residents and businesses are moving to Nevada daily. With the influx comes the need for more services of every description, including legal assistance. Yet the fastest-growing state in the country boasts only about 6,000 lawyers. That means plenty of work for existing Nevada law firms, as well as interest from regional and national firms looking our way.
Despite the number of new industries in Nevada, one type of practice is not hotter than another – except for real estate law, which is booming.
“The impressive growth of the Las Vegas Valley and the diversification of various industries have presented almost unparalleled opportunities in the legal field,” said Anthony Cabot, a partner at Lewis & Roca, a legal firm with four offices throughout the West and approximately 190 attorneys. “This is a very, very vibrant market, and that is reflected in the legal market as well. I’m not sure that absolutely everyone is busy, but lawyers are in demand in a number of different areas.”
What Challenges Are Law Firms Facing?
The top challenge for most firms: finding enough lawyers. Quality lawyers are being snapped up straight out of law schools across the country. Lateral recruitment takes individuals and portions of practices right out of law firms and integrates them into other groups.
“We’ve brought in intellectual property attorneys as a group and labor attorneys as a group, and I just joined three months ago on the gaming side,” said Cabot. “Demand for lawyers is far outstripping supply at this point.”
One of the reasons Nevada firm Quirk & Tratos merged with Greenberg Traurig, an international firm with 1,350 lawyers, was the amount of work available here. The firm as a whole agreed to be hired on by Greenberg, feeling there were services they could offer clients if they had more attorneys to work with.
Another challenge for Nevada is the need for specialized courts and a background of case and statutory law that needs to evolve on its own. Delaware, a business-friendly state like Nevada, has a chancery court to handle corporate matters, proxy battles and shareholder lawsuits, with the case law and history to back it up. Nevada doesn’t, and corporations would like such a court to be located here.
Sometimes challenges can be met by attorneys from large firms moving into Nevada, whether or not those attorneys are here physically or just part of the firm. “Some of the real estate issues we’re facing now are because of the up-and-coming boomtown here,” said Lauri Thompson, shareholder, who was with Quirk & Tratos and is now with Greenberg. “Some of the laws on our books need to catch up. We’re seeing that right now with the new high-rise condo developments. One benefit our firm has is that Greenberg Traurig is based in Florida, where the high-rise condo boom started.”
The influx of large firms can also be seen as a challenge to Nevada law firms. “We’ve seen ebb and flow of firms from outside the area,” said Bill Urga, one of the founders and partners of Jolley Urga Wirth Woodbury & Standish, which as been practicing in Nevada for 35 years. “Reno firms were coming down [to Las Vegas] a few years ago because there was more business there. Regional firms tried it in the ’80s and ’90s. In the past few years, because of the size of Las Vegas, we’re seeing more of the larger regional and national firms coming in.”
The migration of outside firms into Nevada may not have an effect on Nevada firms, Urga said – everyone is busy, after all – but, “Obviously we want to see people using local law firms.”
Big Firms Migrating to Nevada
Nevada’s growth and healthy economy are making the state more and more attractive to large regional and national law firms. In the past, out-of-state firms could represent clients in Nevada courts, but regulations said they had to work with local counsel and couldn’t set up offices here.
A few years ago there was a push to allow attorneys licensed in one state to work in any other state. Nevada wasn’t interested, said Ann Price McCarthy, outgoing president of the State Bar of Nevada, who is in private practice in Carson City. Nevada wanted lawyers who practiced in Nevada to take the bar and follow Nevada rules.
But Nevada is a business-oriented community and recognized the value of having people here doing business and having lawyers here to represent them. “So Nevada became the first state to allow for multi-jurisdictional practice: rules now allow these huge firms to come here and open an office and put people in it and advertise that they’re here. Especially in Las Vegas, you’re going to start seeing some big names,” McCarthy said.
Hancock Rothert & Bunshoft is an international firm with offices in London, Los Angeles and San Francisco – and now in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. Their focus in the U.S. is in the West, so Nevada was a logical step for them. “The rules are such that you can only do so much in the state courts if you don’t have a physical office in Nevada, or you use local counsel and you’re limited to the number of times you can do it within a number of years, so it’s difficult litigating here if you don’t have an office here,” said Dominica Anderson, managing partner of the firm’s Las Vegas office.
“I don’t know that [large firms coming in] is affecting the field at all,” said George Ogilvie, managing partner of the Las Vegas office of McDonald Carano. “We’re seeing national and regional firms coming in and merging with local firms. That’s no different than just about any other industry – no different than the globalization of gaming or manufacturing. You have been seeing the same thing in other professional service fields for many years. Everyone keeps getting larger and merging with competitors, and the same thing is happening in the legal field.”
After all, McCarthy said every attorney she talks to is busy. “There are still only between 5,000 and 6,000 of us in the state. I don’t think anybody can keep up and I don’t think there’s a lack of business,” she pointed out.
To Specialize or Not to Specialize…
“I think business law firms are probably very tempted to be all things to their clients, though in general most are smart enough not to get into areas of law they don’t practice in,” said McCarthy. “Some firms have areas of specialization, but I don’t see most firms trying to cover every single thing their clients may need. I don’t think it’s practical in this day and age.”
That said, McCarthy pointed out that for firms that do want to specialize, the Supreme Court in Nevada signed a new rule into effect in January 2004, allowing attorneys to become certified in specific areas of law and advertise as specialists in those fields.
While some firms do specialize, most seem to want to be more things to more clients. Jim Mace, a partner with Snell & Wilmer, believes many general law firms add specialties as they grow. One of the arguments in favor of big firms heading into Nevada is the ability to find an attorney within the firm with expertise in just about any area. Snell & Wilmer has 400 lawyers firm-wide with offices in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Tucson, and Orange County, Calif.
The Legal Lobby
Lobbying is becoming one more service Nevada law firms are offering clients. “We have what we call our governmental affairs and regulatory practice,” said Michael Alonso, a shareholder with Jones Vargas. “We have a practice group within the firm primarily based in administrative law, including gaming, tax commission and administrative-type duties. In addition, a big part of government affairs is lobbying at the Legislature and local government work. We’re a full-service law firm and we’re trying to be a one-stop-shop for our clients.”
Jones Vargas has four attorneys working full-time at the Legislature while it is in session. McDonald Carano has the McDonald Carano Wilson governmental affairs group to do lobbying. Other firms coming into Nevada are looking to offer the service as well.
Image is Everything
A good many law firms rely on word of mouth and client referrals for their images. Just as many rely on PR firms to help them brand the image they want to convey. A high-quality image makes it easier for firms to recruit new attorneys and attract high-profile clients.
“Image in the legal field is developed as a result of hard work performed and good legal services delivered to clients. It is developed as word of mouth,” said Ogilvie. That said, the flip side of image – branding – is important to firms too. “With the influx of out-of-state law firms, the legal field is more competitive and firms have to strive more diligently to distinguish themselves from all the other firms.”
Not everyone agrees. “You can spend the money if you want, to raise the profile of the firm,” Cabot said. “But at the end of the day, the image of the firm is reflected in the quality of its legal services.”
In the end, Ogilvie said, practicing law is still about the attorney and the client, whether that attorney and client are a sole practitioner and a mom-and-pop shop or a department full of lawyers and a multi-national corporation. It still gets down to the services lawyers provide to individual clients and really doesn’t change just because the law firm has grown.
