The law firm of Brown Rudnick has entered California with its acquisition of litigation boutique Rus Miliband & smith in Orange County, according to The National Law Journal. Brown Rudnick is based in Boston and has roughly 190 attorneys. It opened an office in Irvine on April 8. Rus Miliband & Smith focuses its practice on complex, commercial and bankruptcy cases.
The chairman of Brown Rudnick, Joseph Ryan, said, “Our vision for the office is to include some of those other practice areas that represent strengths of Brown Rudnick.”
There are eight offices for Brown Rudnick, including locations in New York, Washington, London and Dublin. The firm focuses on corporate restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, technology company mergers and acquisitions and capital markets.
Ronald Rus, a partner at Rus Miliband, said the following about concerns over changes to the firm due to the merger, “The honest answer is, ‘Of course. There is something besides being comfortable, and I’m more excited than concerned. I’m 63 going on 40.”
Some of the biggest cases for Rus Miliband include blocking an attempted hostile takeover of Trammell Crow Partners’ $215 million Park Place project located in Irvine. The firm also served as counsel for SunCal Cos. in the bankruptcy case of Lehman Brothers Holdings. SunCal Cos. invested $2.3 billion in company projects.
Ryan noted that there are no layoffs scheduled for staff members or attorneys due to the merger.