Law. (Barely Making the Grade).

Year in Review: A year of big hits -- both good and bad. O'Melveny & Myers was on the wrong end of a $100 million malpractice lawsuit by the LAUSD over Belmont Learning Center... Local partners at Squadron Ellenoff Plesent & Sheinfeld handled the sale of Fox Family to Walt Disney Co., as well as negotiations between News Corp. and Hughes Electronics for DirecTV .. Corporate practices, already slowing in the fall, took a major hit following Sept. 11 as firms shifted attorneys to other practice areas. Bankruptcy work escalated, spurring firms to beef up those divisions... Former U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas joined O'Melveny... Gibson Dunn & Crutcher managing partner Wesley Howell Jr. and chairman Ron Beard announced their resignations ... Brobeck Phleger & Harrison's L.A. litigation head, Richard Odom, took the helm of the struggling San Francisco-based firm.

Players to Watch: New L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who expects to streamline the office's work with private industry. This includes encouraging investments in abandoned properties and managing workers compensation claims... Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks, whose contract is up in June... Richard Odom, new chairman who will lead Brobeck into 2002 L.A.... Whoever is named managing partner and chairman of Gibson Dunn... Attorneys David Steuber and Kirk Pasich at Howrey Simon Arnold & White's L.A. office who have been at the forefront of handling insurance claims filed after Sept. 11.

Buzz for 2002: L.A. law firms aren't expected to regain pre-recession level of work until summer... Firm mergers and layoffs likely early in the year, although L.A. is expected to do better than most legal centers... Possible shakeouts at O'Melveny (slow economy) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (following merger with Troop Steuber) and the possible closure of the L.A. offices of Cleveland-based Arter & Hadden... Mergers possible among Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and Squadron Ellenoff... Coming out on top next year could be Manatt Phelps & Phillips (aggressive expansion) and Latham & Watkins (long-desired national prominence has been achieved)... Corporate lawyers will be poring over security clauses in commercial real estate deals... L.A. litigators will have a share of the lawsuits against terrorists and airlines growing out of Sept. 11... Government and public policy work is expected to skyrocket... Bankruptcy work will continue to increase with hiring among L.A. firms.

Grade: B