With offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orange County, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell is living the Cali lifestyle. The firm's multiple strengths include thriving intellectual property, land use, real estate, patent litigation, hospitality, labor & employment, entertainment and tax practices. The firm’s lawyers are also keeping up with changing trends by blogging on the firm's Patent Lawyer Blog, California Land Use Blog, Hotel Law Blog and Investment Law Blog.

Practices So Good, They're Trademarked

Founded by a group of friends in 1981, JMBM has grown to join the AmLaw 200.With three offices and well over 100 attorneys, JMBM might be smaller than much of its California competition, but the firm offers a robust and versatile practice, hitting everything from bankruptcy to data security to renewable energy. The firm even sports three registered trademark groups, the Chinese Investment Group™, the Discovery Technology Group™ and Global Hospitality Group®. Perhaps due to its youthful partnership and progressive leanings, the firm has attracted a diverse set of clients over the years, like the Los Angeles Lakers and Volkswagen of America. In the entertainment world, JMBM attorneys have represented Universal Music Group and CBS.

And the still-young JMBM has proven flexible enough to adapt with international trends. The firm's recently formed Chinese Investment Group™ helps Chinese investors make hotel purchases in the U.S. According to the firm's site, the team of hotel and real estate attorneys has seen about $71 billion in hotel transactions and cases involving thousands of properties internationally. The group has worked with hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Fairmont, MGM Mirage, Ritz-Carlton, Regent, Renaissance and Four Seasons.

Litigation Bench Strength

The firm is strong in litigation and according to its website efficiently wins cases "not with an army of lawyers, just one or two smart and experienced trial attorneys with the right plan." Its wins for clients include the defense of a CEQA challenge for Vulcan Materials; a class action lawsuit for BMW Financial Services; a breach of contract claim for venture capital group TAT Partners; and, for an inventor-physician client, JMBM achieved a total verdict valued at $570 million against Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc. in a lawsuit involving contract claims and patent rights.

Fostering Diversity

Although the field of law has long been considered a "Boys Club," the women attorneys of JMBM have their own clubs. They gather regularly in the office to discuss issues varying from practice development to work-life balance, and everything in between. They also meet regularly in each other's homes to socialize and discuss their current Book Club book.

Fine Wine

Perhaps there is a liquid lubricant for the extracurricular firm culture at JMBM, a firm which the ABA Journal has described as having a "palpable camaraderie" where "work and life often weave easily and naturally." A segment of the firm's attorneys share a passion for wine and host monthly "wine and schmooze" events to share and pass on their knowledge of the powers of the grape to more novice connoisseurs.