New Del Mar Heights Office Opens
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, one of California’s leading law firms, announced today the firm has opened the doors to its new office in Del Mar Heights. The North San Diego County location is the firm’s seventh, all in California, having added offices in Santa Barbara and West Los Angeles on September 1. The Del Mar Heights office is Sheppard Mullin’s second in the San Diego area. The firm will maintain its downtown San Diego office.
The 14,000 square foot Del Mar Heights office, located adjacent to Del Mar Heights Road at 12544 High Bluff Drive in San Diego, will be initially staffed with 16 attorneys who are at the forefront of practice areas including litigation, corporate, labor, real estate, and intellectual property law. The full service office will provide practical advice and innovative solutions for business interests throughout the North County. In addition, the office’s proximity to Sorrento Mesa, Carmel Valley, and La Jolla/UC San Diego will allow it to fully serve the needs of the area’s technology, biomedical, broadband communications, wireless telecommunication and e-commerce sectors. Guy Halgren, Chair of Sheppard Mullin’s Executive Committee, explained the firm’s philosophy: "We believe there are tremendous opportunities in California for quality full service law firms and we aim to take advantage of those opportunities. Sheppard Mullin has added three new California offices in the last three weeks. This is a reflection of the strength of our Firm and also the optimism with which we view California's economy."
Significantly, Sheppard Mullin has added the three new offices in the past 17 days. The addition of partners and associates from Nida and Maloney on September 1 gave Sheppard Mullin a presence in Santa Barbara and West Los Angeles. That expansion made Sheppard Mullin one of the few firms that can service the west side of Los Angeles through the 101 Corridor to Santa Barbara and California’s Central Coast. The Del Mar Heights office now makes Sheppard Mullin one of the few firms with locations in both North County and downtown San Diego.
"We are looking to provide high quality corporate work to San Diego's public and private companies," noted Richard Kintz, a senior partner in the firm’s Corporate and Securities Group in the Del Mar Heights office. "We intend to maintain our tradition of providing creative and cost-effective solutions to a broad range of our clients’ business needs. The firm intends to continue to represent a balanced group of traditional companies, as well as the emerging companies in all industries. Consistent with this philosophy, the partners who will initially be resident in the Del Mar Heights office will be from our corporate, real estate, labor, intellectual property and litigation departments."Domenic Drago is the managing partner of the Del Mar Heights office. Drago is a transactional partner who has been with Sheppard Mullin since 1986. "The Del Mar Heights office opened this month with 16 attorneys," Drago commented. "We are also actively hiring new partners and associates both in Del Mar and downtown. Our Del Mar Heights office provides full service to our clients with lawyers from all major practice areas in the firm, focusing not only on emerging business but also traditional business. We opened this office to enhance our accessibility to our growing clients in North County while maintaining our strong downtown presence."
The firm opened its downtown San Diego office with seven attorneys on March 3, 1986. A full service law office located at 501 West Broadway, Sheppard Mullin’s downtown location will continue to service a diverse client base ranging from parties engaged in complex federal litigation to state court actions for breach of contract; from multi-national banks and corporations to local tech and med-tech businesses; from land use planning for major real estate developers to leasing of downtown office space; from national department store chains to local retailers; and from multi-state construction companies to local contractors. The client list encompasses some of San Diego’s oldest established businesses as well as recent arrivals to the region. The firm’s work includes full service, hands-on counseling at every stage of the corporate life span.
In addition, the firm actively supports numerous charities and community-based programs. This commitment extends further into the legal arena. Sheppard Mullin has been named "San Diego’s Pro Bono Firm of the Year" by the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program four times in the last 10 years— most recently in 1999— and received a similar honor from the State Bar in 1991.
Sheppard Mullin has more than 300 attorneys among its seven offices in San Diego, Del Mar Heights, Orange County, Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. The full-service firm specializes in corporate and securities, banking and finance, labor and employment, litigation and antitrust, land use and real estate, intellectual property, and tax and estate planning. The firm will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2002.