Loeb & Loeb LLP: a national law firm with local roots.

"I believe Los Angeles is destined to become, in not many years, a world-center prominent in almost every field of endeavor. [Just] as nineteen hundred years ago the humblest Roman ... would glow with pride when he said 'I am a Roman!' so will the son of the metropolis on these shores ... be proud to declare 'I am a citizen of Los Angeles!'"

The businessman and historian Harris Newmark made that prediction almost a century ago and his grandsons, Edwin and Joseph Loeb, helped make it come true. The law firm they founded, Loeb & Loeb, played a major role in the development of the City of Los Angeles in the early 1900s, helping to establish such institutions as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, MetroGoldwyn-Mayer and Union Bank of California. Along the way, Edwin became the trusted advisor of such luminaries as Carl Laemmle, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, and a representative of the film industry as a whole through his work for the Motion Picture Association of America.

Loeb & Loeb grew up with Los Angeles and as it did it attracted some of the finest lawyers in the country. To cite just two examples: Herman Selvin was a litigator of such skill that Justice Felix Frankfurter remarked that he had made "one of the two finest oral arguments I have ever heard in my years on the Supreme Court," while Frank Keesling, as head of the California Franchise Tax Board, drafted a complete revision of the California Franchise Tax Code. Loeb & Loeb's growth led eventually to a merger with a New York firm of comparable quality and vintage in the 1980's.

Today, Loeb & Loeb is a national firm with a practice concentrated in five main areas: entertainment, corporate, litigation, real estate and wealth planning. Its Los Angeles roots are evidenced by its entertainment practice, which is among the largest in the world. For example, Loeb & Loeb has handled more motion picture, television and music industry-related financing transactions than almost any other law firm, on behalf of borrowers, financial institutions, completion guarantors and distributors. Recently, it has handled a series of music catalog dispositions, reflecting its expertise when it comes to intellectual property assets. In one deal, Gaylord Entertainment sold its Acuff-Rose Music Publishing unit to Sony for $157 million. In another, the firm represented Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in the sale of the Trio and Quartet catalogs to Windswept Classics and Itochu.

Loeb & Loeb also has a broad roster of talent clients, including Woody Allen, Beastie Boys, Dixie Chicks, Kelly Clarkson, Robert Duvall, Vince Gill, The Grateful Dead, Anthony Hopkins, Bill Maher, Phish, Radiohead, Robert Rodriguez, Diana Ross, Ryan Seacrest and Elijah Wood. The firm has an equally impressive client base in other industries. For example, it represents three of the world's largest banking groups--Citigroup, Mizuho and UBS--as well as major accounting firms, advertising agencies, insurance companies, real estate companies, technology concerns and retailers.

Loeb & Loeb is currently handling several high-stakes disputes. The firm is lead counsel for the major Hollywood studios in their efforts to protect their copyrighted films from unauthorized alteration. The studios are defendants in a case in which CleanFlicks of Colorado and 11 other companies claim that they have the right to sell to the public "sanitized" versions of the studios' films without their consent. The firm has also been defending numerous record labels, music publishers and artists in the most extensive copyright infringement action in history. This lawsuit, brought by Bridgeport Music and concerning music sampling, has been broken into no less than 486 separate cases by a US district judge in Nashville.

Representations of financial institutions range from bankruptcy and restructuring matters to insurance coverage disputes, and from securities arbitrations to white-collar cases. For example, Loeb & Loeb obtained a multimillion-dollar settlement for Morgens, Waterfall in a lawsuit against DLJ for losses arising from an investment in distressed AmeriServe debt.

The firm achieved another high-profile win for The Franklin Mint, which was accused of violating federal trademark laws and California's right of publicity statute in selling products using the name and image of Princess Diana. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the trial court's decision granting summary judgment. It also affirmed an award of $2.3 million in legal fees, believed to be the largest such award in the history of the Lanham Act.

Loeb & Loeb's corporate lawyers have also been busy despite the weak economy, notably in the mergers and acquisitions and private equity areas, where the firm has a particular focus on middle-market transactions. The firm has also directly addressed the corporate governance challenges arising out the accounting and other scandals and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, serving as outside counsel to independent directors and to audit committees, and as special investigative counsel in special situations throughout the country.

The firm's trusts and estates group represents not only numerous high net worth individuals, but many significant foundations and trusts, and has established an enviable reputation for handling very complex estate litigations. The group has handled matters concerning trusts and estates of the Getty family, William Randolph Hearst, Conrad Hilton, Mark Hughes, Gene Roddenberry, Frank Sinatra and Lord Gordon White.

The real estate practice is strong at the local and national levels, representing financial institutions, developers, landlords and tenants, and other industry participants. Clients include AIMCO, Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Booth Creek Ski Holdings, Borders Group, Citigroup, DoubleClick, KPMG and Merrill Lynch.

Throughout its history, Loeb & Loeb has had a strong commitment to community involvement, and pro bono work. For example, Herman Selvin's persuasive advocacy in the United States Supreme Court helped preserve California's fair housing laws. (Selvin rallied the legal profession in California to the cause with these words: "We lawyers have shown we've got great minds, and we've got great hearts. Now let's show we have some guts.")

The firm's civic-mindedness has been honored on many occasions, most recently when the ACLU Foundation of Southern California named Loeb & Loeb partner Douglas Mirell its 2003 Pro Bono Advocate of the Year. It also recognized the vital contributions of associates Orit Michiel, Karen Thorland and Negin Mirmirani. Still, the firm is not content to rest on its laurels, and has recently embarked on a number of practice development initiatives, including strategic lateral hiring.

As its centenary approaches, Loeb & Loeb, a law firm with a broad national practice and deep Los Angeles roots, can look to the future with confidence and to the past with pride.