Amid growing competition in Southern California’s legal market, the latest law firm to expand its corporate and securities practice in the region is Blank Rome.
Michael Cohen (pictured) joins Blank Rome as a partner in Los Angeles from Morrison & Foerster. Cohen was head of the latter firm’s corporate practice in the city. Cohen advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions, and private equity deals. Many of Cohen’s clients are active in the real estate, branded apparel, healthcare, oil and gas, mining, media, and entertainment sectors.
In a discussion with IFLR1000, Cohen reflected on what he sees as the longstanding mid-cap character of the Los Angeles market for M&A work.
“It’s not that there are no large-cap companies here, because there are some; but, if you will, the business in terms of M&A is more of a mid-cap proposition. As some of the larger law firms have focused more and more on the large-cap market, they have slowly but surely become out of touch with the mid-cap market, both in terms of pricing and practice,” Cohen said.
“Even the large-cap companies, if they are serial acquirers doing mid-cap deals, are often looking for mid-cap law firms and the prices that go along with them. They go to the Midwest firms in some cases. These clients are looking at the nature of the transaction, without regard to the fact that they are large-cap, and they want to hire a law firm that fits,” he added.
Cohen made clear that mid-cap is not a synonym for domestic. On the contrary, his clients typically have international operations requiring cross-border transactional expertise on the part of their counsel.
“Most successful businesses in L.A. have some kind of cross-border aspect to them. For example, I have done a lot work in the branded apparel industry, which is fairly robust in L.A. Clients in that sector usually have manufacturing facilities overseas, and sometimes even other kinds of facilities overseas. It is rare these days to find companies that solely do business within the U.S.," Cohen continued.
Cohen holds a J.D. from Loyola Law School and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.