Los Angeles
Latham & Watkins was founded in Los Angeles in 1934. The Los Angeles office, with more than 250 attorneys, is one of the largest of the firm's offices and has long played an important role in the business and economic development of Southern California, helping to transform some of its most significant companies and projects from vision into reality.
Practice Areas
Reflecting the diverse mix of companies doing business in Southern California, the Los Angeles office serves clients in a wide array of industries, including communications, energy, sports, entertainment and media, investment banking, accounting, health care, gaming, real estate and technology. Each of Latham's five departments has internationally recognized practices in Los Angeles.
On the transactional-side, the Corporate Department offers sophisticated capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, public company representation, emerging companies, health care, communications, strategic partnering/private investment funds, technology transactions and outsourcing practices. The Finance Department includes practice groups involved in banking, structured finance, insolvency, tax-exempt finance and project finance transactions.
The Tax Department, which dates back to the practice of the firm's founding fathers, offers a full range of tax controversy, counseling, benefits and compensation work and supports our transactional practice.
Our LA Litigation Department provides expertise in a multitude of substantive fields including antitrust, commercial, employment, intellectual property, and product liability and mass torts, among others. The Los Angeles Environment, Land & Resources Department is part of the largest environmental practice of any firm in the United States and boasts preeminent environmental compliance, legislative and regulatory rulemaking, litigation and land use practices.
Community Ties
The Los Angeles office has a long history of involvement with pro bono matters both in Southern California and on an international scale. Over the years, we have undertaken pro bono work for Foster Children Adoptions, Five Acres (environmental review), the Watts Cinema and Education Center (finance and tax advice), AIDS Project Los Angeles (corporate and litigation matters), Homelessness Prevention Project (employment and litigation matters) and the Latino Theater Company (real estate advice). In addition, the office successfully convinced the California Court of Appeal to overturn the conviction of a pro bono client who had been wrongly incarcerated since 1997. The office has also been involved in a number of anti-discrimination cases involving high school students in the Los Angeles area. In 2006, the office was given a Special Recognition award from Five Acres for the office's work on behalf of the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society of Los Angeles.