Withers' San Francisco office. Courtesy photo

Global law firm Withers is chipping away at its long-standing goal to achieve an even split between its U.S., Europe and Asia revenues—and firm leaders report it's nearly there in the U.S. thanks in large part to its bet on private wealth in the Golden State.

Michael Brophy of Withers. Courtesy Photo

"Every year we erode globally into the idea that the London market is the most important market to the firm," said Michael Brophy, Los Angeles managing partner and regional division leader of the U.S. private client and tax team. Withers jumped 15 spots in the Global 200 to No. 153 in 2021 with $312.6 million in gross revenue and 665 total lawyers. And more than one-third, or 23, of the firm's 66 partners in the U.S. are based in its three offices in California. Similarly, about 60 of the firm's total 151 total lawyers in the U.S. are in California. To accommodate its growth, the firm is in the process of expanding its physical footprint by 55% in the state, with new office spaces in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego (the latter of which will combine two existing offices in San Diego and Rancho Santa Fe). The Los Angeles office nearly tripled to 23,100 square feet and the San Francisco hub almost doubled to 14,000 square feet, both in May. And come July, the San Diego offices will morph into one 13,550 square-foot outpost. "These new offices really mark the next stage of our growth here in California," said San Francisco managing director Marsha Laine Dungog. "The offices took a lot of intentional planning and hours, and are reflective of how we are working not just with our clients but with each other." For example, the San Francisco office moved to Jackson Square, which is only a few minutes away from the heart of the Financial District but is surrounded by ad agencies and art galleries, opposed to corporate businesses. Doug Mandell, the leader of the firm's founder practice and a San Francisco-based partner, described the outpost's vibe as "creative" rather than "hardcore corporate," which he said mirrors the firm's identity as a private client firm. Dungog added that because the firm created new offices during the time of COVID, it was able to adapt to the future of the needs of successful families and the firm's own lawyers and the new way of "mobile" or hybrid work. |

Following Families 'Where They Need Us'

Withers launched in the U.S. in 2002, merging with New Haven tax boutique Bergman, Horowitz & Reynolds. Since then, the firm expanded with offices in Greenwich, Connecticut; New York; California; Boston; and, most recently, Texas. The firm broke into the Golden State with four offices in 2015, scooping up an eight-partner team from McKenna Long & Aldridge ahead of its merger with Dentons, and two lateral hires, including Brophy. "When Withers decided to become a global firm, it thought about where private wealth goes around the world. California had been on its radar for quite some time. When it brought in the entire private client team from McKenna, it made a splash right away," Brophy recalled. And while Brophy, a trusts and estates litigator, acknowledged that litigation is not necessarily the firm's bread and butter, he said it is often "a necessary evil" for wealthy families' estate planning needs. Thus, the opportunity to join the firm created a "perfect marriage." The firm's growth continues to be dictated by "where our families need us," according to Brophy, who noted that while Latin American families don't necessarily need the firm to have offices in the Southern Hemisphere, it is a must for wealthy families in California. "We needed to show our commitment to the families here, and that has allowed us to be successful in reaching wealthy families, some of whom had never heard of Withers before," he said.

Marsha Laine Dungog of Withers. Courtesy photo

The presence is also an important one for the firm's Asia strategy, according to Dungog. "We're the first handshake in the U.S. for our clients in the Pacific. For families relocating, the West Coast, whether Los Angeles or San Francisco, is your first stop," she said. Going forward, "we're not done creating our U.S. footprint," according to Brophy, who notes the firm is finalizing how big it should be in places like Texas and New York, and continues to consider other centers of wealth or places in the U.S. with strong connections to Latin America or Asia. In the near term, Withers expects to continue to grow its newly established presence in Texas and plans in Florida as well, according to the firm. According to Dungog, "the next three to five years will be definitive for us, with several new practices that we've launched in the last year alone" that demonstrate "we are committed to making our successful families more successful." |

Practice Innovations With an Eye Toward the Individual

In addition to building its real estate, employment, dispute resolution, tax and private client services in the state, the firm has also hired a number of entrepreneurial-minded partners that have launched their own practices. Since 2019, new practices have included ones catering to fashion tech, founders, cryptocurrency and digital assets, U.S.-Canada cross-border work and U.S. family law. For her part, Dungog overhauled her own Canada-U.S. practice. She had previously served as a director at Andersen and Canadian-based law firm Moodys, before joining Withers in 2020. When she arrived, she sought to reorient her practice to U.S.-based work. "When I told the firm I wanted to recalibrate my practice, they didn't say 'why?' They said, 'what do you need for us to support you?'" she recalled. "That sense of transparency, collaboration and collegiality was really important to me."

Doug Mandell of Withers. Courtesy photo

Another new practice is the founder group, a team launched and led by Mandell, who previously ran his own firm acting as a personal general counsel to founders and CEOs, in between several in-house stints as general counsel for tech companies including LinkedIn and Nauto. Since joining in 2020, "I've exceeded all of my goals in terms of the number of clients I brought with me and the revenue I've brought to the firm. The synergies that I saw initially are clearly there," he said, pointing to key resources in tax, trusts and estates and corporate matters. And a big advantage of joining Withers, according to Mandell, is that because of its private client focus, it does not compete head-on with many other law firms. "Large law firms see us as an ally. My single biggest referral source is from law firms representing companies, and I'm called in to represent individual founders or CEOs," he said. "Founders need the requisite expertise, not just in employment law, to advise on corporate or tax issues that affect them personally within a merger agreement." At the end of the day, he said, "Representing individuals is in our DNA."