For Los Angeles-based firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, advising disrupter-clients on COVID-era growth opportunities has made it into a disrupter in its own right.

In the first half of 2021, the self-styled "professional services firm of the future" has fueled its East Coast expansion with lateral hires from Kirkland & Ellis, Lowenstein Sandler and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Some of those additions said they joined Manatt to capitalize on its interdisciplinary practice model that offers both consulting and legal services to clients.