The Hollywood Reporter captured this image of Latham & Watkins new office in Century City.
Summary: Latham & Watkins has opened an entertainment office in Century City, California.
Global law firm Latham & Watkins has just opened a new office in Century City, California; and judging by its picture, it’s a swanky place. The entertainment-focused branch, which is located near entertainment hubs like Beverly Hills and Los Angeles-proper, takes up two floors and is covered with black and white murals of Hollywood icons.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, partners at O’Melveny & Meyers left in 2014 to head up an entertainment branch of Latham & Watkins. The team worked in a temporary space for more than a year before settling into the new office located at Constellation Place. When the division first started, they had five lawyers but the branch has grown to now include 32. Entertainment transactions and litigation make up 85 percent of the office’s business.
Latham & Watkins was formed in 1934, has 31 offices worldwide, and almost 2,000 lawyers, Lawcrossing reports.
Partner Joseph Calabrese spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how his firm is different from others. The Century City-branch focuses on creativity, the way a startup would.
“This space is very much designed to create an environment and a place where we can really create community,” Calabrese said. “That is something that’s very exciting. It’s a place that’s built to encourage the kind of creativity that a lot of startup and tech companies have.”
Latham & Watkins’ entertainment clients include the NCAA and Legendary Pictures. They facilitated the transaction between the NCAA and Tencent; and they represented Legendary when it was acquired for $3.5 billion by Dalian Wanda Group. According to Calabrese, Latham & Watkins was the largest law firm in the world by revenue in 2015.
Calabrese along with Christopher Brearton were both recently named Power Lawyers in THR’s annual list of 100 top entertainment lawyers.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter