Robert Kahan, Blank Rome.

Blank Rome, which has been busy expanding on both coasts, has hired DLA Piper corporate partner Robert Kahan to bolster its presence in Los Angeles.

Kahan has joined the Philadelphia-based Am Law 100 firm as partner in the corporate, M&A and securities group, which recently added partners Terrence Everett from Carlsmith Ball and Jeffrey Cohen from Baker McKenzie in Los Angeles and New York, respectively.

“Blank Rome's growing LA office and corporate practice, coupled with the firm's strong collegial culture and reconnecting with my former colleagues—Frank Kaplan, Kevin Martin, Pauline Martin, Jason Kim and Stacy Phillips, all of whom now work in Blank Rome's LA office—were all compelling factors for me,” said Kahan of his new firm. “I'm also able to harness the numerous synergies across the firm's local and national platforms and practices for my unique client base.”

Based in Los Angeles, Kahan focuses his practice on counseling middle-market companies across the entertainment, lifestyle, marketing and restaurant sectors. Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, Kahan has advised clients through mergers and acquisitions, as well as providing securities, franchising and licensing counsel.

“Los Angeles has a strong legal market in various key industries, notably including entertainment, sports law, software and technology, and lifestyle brands, all of which are robust industry segments that continue to grow and expand exponentially,” Kahan said.

He was most recently a senior counsel at DLA Piper, where he spent about a year and a half. He became part of the global giant when it absorbed 60-lawyer Liner LLP in 2017.

Before his jump to Liner in 2014, Kahan was at Beverly Hills boutique Eisner Kahan Gorry Chapman Ross & Jaffe after going separate ways with his long-time partner Stanton “Larry” Stein in 2009. The two reunited briefly at Liner, but Stein joined Los Angeles boutique Russ August & Kabat as a partner in February 2018.

“We're thrilled to have a veteran attorney like Bob join our growing corporate team,” Grant Palmer, Blank Rome's managing partner and CEO, said in a statement. “We look forward to the contributions that he'll make to the corporate group as well as our growing Los Angeles office.”

Blank Rome, which opened its Los Angeles office in 2009, also recently acquired a five-attorney group from Los Angeles-based Buter, Buzard, Fishbein & Royce to further build out its California family law practice. With its latest additions, Blank Rome now has a total of 85 attorneys and professionals in Los Angeles, of which 26 are partners.

DLA Piper did not respond to a request for comment regarding Kahan's departure. The firm recently brought on Michael Jay from Boies Schiller Flexner in its intellectual property and technology practice in Los Angeles.

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