If it wasn't for John Mowbray, Spencer Fane may have never been able to open an office in Las Vegas. Neither would any other out-of-town firm, for that matter.

As president of the State Bar of Nevada in the early 2000s, Mowbray led an effort to modernize rules forbidding law firms whose name partners were not licensed lawyers in Nevada from setting up shop in the Silver State. The rule once led Snell & Wilmer, a Phoenix-based Am Law 200 firm, to be known in Las Vegas for a time as Curtis & Associates.

For the second time since 2006, Mowbray took advantage of that rule change this month when he launched a Sin City outpost for Spencer Fane, a fast-growing firm that in the past year has opened offices in Dallas, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and now Las Vegas. In November, the Kansas City, Missouri-based firm acquired a 30-lawyer shop in Denver, which at the time brought Spencer Fane's head count to more than 190. The firm now has more than 210 lawyers.