O'Melveny & Myers partner T. Hale Boggs, son of the late trailblazing Washington lobbyist Thomas H. Boggs Jr. (courtesy photo)

Seeking to capture the legal work that emerges as the media and technology industries converge, O'Melveny & Myers has launched a new Los Angeles-based group to service these sectors, expanding the firm's presence in Southern California.

The group is called O'Melveny MediaTech, and will guide established and emerging companies and investors involved in content development and distribution, the firm announced Wednesday. The new group, which comprises more than 20 lawyers from the firm's California and New York offices, will be led by partner T. Hale Boggs, who joined O'Melveny in November 2018 after three decades at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

The Recorder caught up with Boggs to learn more about the new “MediaTech” practice and how the firm plans on positioning itself in the growing Silicon Beach market.

Boggs answers have been edited lightly for clarity and style.

Why is the firm establishing the new MediaTech practice?

Boggs: The practice is the result of what I perceive as a transformative time in Southern California in particular. If you spend time here, you just can't help but notice there is a migration of major technology companies choosing the Los Angeles market, many of them focusing on the business of Los Angeles, which I perceive as basically content development and distribution. So, companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, YouTube, [and] Netflix have all moved into the LA market, and in a substantial way—hiring thousands of people locally, spending literally billions of dollars around these different types of new content development distribution models. So for us, we see this as a major opportunity to be involved in this transformation and to help these companies succeed in their business plans.

What has driven the transformation in Southern California, and the so-called Silicon Beach?

Boggs: Southern California has always been the place where people go or stay around [for] content development, [and] that been true since the beginning of Hollywood. As the world[s] of technology and content have increasingly converged with all these mobile devices [and] all of these different types of content platforms, it seems almost inevitable that you're going to see a migration to the Los Angeles area because that is where the content developers are. So, to me, it is almost kind of an inevitable trend and frankly the one I have been involved with and [have been] following for many years.

Who is included in the MediaTech practice group?

Boggs: The practice consists of attorneys here in the firm who are involved either in media and entertainment—mostly here in the Century City office—[or] in technology and venture capital, and that includes myself, others here, and it includes several people from our Silicon Valley office, some people from our New York office, and some people from downtown LA [and] Newport Beach offices.

Who are your clients?

Boggs: There is work we have done and will do for the large companies, basically to help them if they want to expand [into Los Angeles] because it is the market where we have been for 100-plus years, and we really know the space and the important people that you need to know in this market.

We also do have a number of relationships with venture-backed companies in the mediatech sector, as well as traditional LA-based entertainment and media companies that are increasingly involved in new media content and distribution.

With all the other Silicon Valley firms opening offices in Silicon Beach, how is O'Melveny's MediaTech practice different from what they are offering?

Boggs: The main thing that makes O'Melveny different is we are a Los Angeles firm. I have a lot of respect for the Silicon Valley firms that have moved out [to LA], but none of them have the depth and experience, or the knowledge of the local LA landscape, as we do. Nor do they have the depth and experience with media and entertainment legal issues. What I would say about most of those firms, with no intention to disparage any of them, they are good at technology [law], but not necessarily good at the specific sort of media-related technology that is happening here in LA.

Some legal recruiters have said Los Angeles might not have enough qualified legal talent to fill the specific needs of the growing client base. What is your firm doing to address that issue?

Boggs: One thing that we have here at O'Melveny is a large Silicon Valley practice, [with] 35 to 40 lawyers, who are all doing exactly what you described: [the] venture-capital-focused type of practice the Silicon Valley firms do.

We have a whole training program we are implementing, [in which] a large number of associates will be trained with Silicon Valley CEOs and Silicon Valley partners. We also have had some success recruiting people who have a real interest in this space. We are getting those lawyers involved in the types of deals this group is going to be doing, and it becomes the kind of repetitive work they become very efficient at doing.