Firm Profiles

This Los Angeles based firm has seen dramatic growth in recent years. Its attorney roster increased by more than 50 percent between 2006 and 2011, making Lewis Brisbois the third–largest firm in California, and now consistently in the top forty in the nation. New offices have been popping up almost as quickly as Starbucks branches (there are 21 in all, with Dallas, Newark, Houston, and Tampa among the newest locations). And as for the recession that slowed some firms down? Evidently, Lewis Brisbois never got the memo: Its revenues rose steadily through the downturn.

Litigation—including product liability, insurance, environmental, and commercial litigation—is the main focus of the firm’s practice, although it also has groups devoted to business law, intellectual property, entertainment law, government relations, and professional liability. While successful expansion has given Lewis Brisbois a place on The Am Law 100, the firm still ranks on The Am Law 200—and close to the tail end of it—on revenue per lawyer and profits per partner.

Where Lewis Brisbois has been a chart–topper, however, is diversity. It ranked fifth of 194 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard, with minorities composing nearly a quarter of its attorneys, and about 14 percent of its partnership. Developing a multicultural roster of lawyers, with different backgrounds and experiences, was one memo, it seems, Lewis Brisbois did receive.

—Updated as of 1/1/12