SANTA BARBARA — In terms of size, 23-lawyer Mullen & Henzell L.L.P., would be a blip on the map of a large city like Los Angeles, home to dozens of international legal powerhouses.
But in small-town Santa Barbara, the litigation and transactions boutique is one of the city’s oldest and largest law firms, a distinction that brings with it some of the thorniest obstacles faced by big-firm counterparts: conflicts of inter¬est.
“I think it’s more of a challenge the larger you get,” senior partner J. Robert Andrews said. “So we’re always on the lookout for conflicts. That’s especially important to us.”
Founded in 1953 as Cavalletto, Web¬ster, Mullen & McCaughey, the firm went through a series of name changes as partners came and went. In 1991, af¬ter Thomas Mullen’s death and Arthur Henzell’s retirement, the partners de¬cided to keep the firm’s last incarnation of Mullen & Henzell L.L.P.
“The institutionalization of the name ensures the firm’s longevity of a partner track, regardless [of its name],” man¬aging partner and transactional lawyer Gregory Faulkner said. “People do come and go, but by and large the critical mass of partners and associates want to stay here during their whole career.”
The firm represents clients involved in a broad range of personal, business and professional endeavors, administra¬tive and municipal government matters, environmental issues, land use develop¬ments and real estate investments.
But it’s particularly known for its rep¬resentation of a long, multi-generational list of prominent families who’ve shaped and developed the picturesque coastal community known for its beauty, easy living and celebrity residents.
The cross-pollination of family busi¬ness and city planning has made the firm ever vigilant of conflicting interests when it gets involved in a new project.
Take the firm’s representation of the en¬terprises of actor-turned-developer Fess Parker since the early 1970s. Over the years, its work for Parker has included helping him acquire prime Santa Bar¬bara oceanfront property to build a 360-room hotel, now known as Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort.
Although Parker died in 2010, the firm continues to represent his various busi¬ness interests. In addition, Andrews is a trustee along with Parker’s two children of the Parker family trust. In that role, he oversees management and operation of all family enterprises, including the fam¬ily’s Santa Ynez winery and the building of a luxury hotel across the street from the Doubletree.
To avoid potential conflicts, the firm recently held a beauty contest to select outside counsel to help on the new ho¬tel project. With the approval of Parker trustees — including Andrews in his po¬sition as client — Mullen & Henzell law¬yers chose a major California real estate
Law firm to handle dealings with lenders, developers and contractors. The lawyers also have contracted with a Pasadena sole practitioner to serve as consultant.
But for all local matters, including city government approvals, the trustees agreed that Mullen & Henzell would be the primary firm on the deal.
Other prominent local families repre¬sented by the firm include the estate of its co-founder, George Cavalletto, in a wide range of legal services. The Italian family was among Santa Barbara Coun¬ty’s earliest settlers in the Goleta Valley in the 1880s.
The firm also represents the Battis¬tone Foundation, created by longtime Santa Barbara resident and restaurateur Sam Battistone, now deceased, to pro¬vide low-income housing for the elderly.
Besides the firm’s mainstay family estate planning work, it also handles an array of other business deals and litiga¬tion
The lawyers noted that the town is populated with people who have second homes here or have relocated from large cities and bring with them that sophisti¬cation of work and legal needs.
Faulkner, for instance, represents a Santa Barbara health care technology company that’s being pursued by a Palo Alto equity investment firm in a transac¬tion that has the potential to go public.
“Here we are in little Santa Barbara working on a deal that ultimately will be¬come an IPO,” Faulkner said. “And that’s just one example.”
Partner Michael Cage, who focuses on real estate and business transac-tions, served as local counsel for Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office, assisting its clients in acquiring several hotels in Santa Barbara.
And along with other major players, including Morrison & Foerster LLP, the firm has represented two consecutive owners in acquiring the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara, a luxury spa hotel on the beach in Mon¬tecito.
“We stack up against larger firms around the country,” Andrews said. “We have a very high standard of practice. What we don’t have is the enormous in¬frastructure and document capacity that goes with these large firms, and that’s a challenge. But in our work productivity, we’re right up there.”
Another challenge for the firm is hiring.
Unlike Los Angeles, where a lawyer can go to another firm down the street if it doesn’t work out, Santa Barbara doesn’t have that many firms from which to choose. As a result, the lawyers are cautious in hiring new members from out of town and often groom summer in¬terns for the job.
“You can figure out really quick if they’ll work out,” said Cage, who started as a summer intern, as did Faulkner. “If you’re going to move someone up here, you really want it to work out, and you don’t know that in one interview.”
So when the lawyers hire an out-of-towner, they want to make sure it’s a good match .
Jared Katz fit the bill.
A former lawyer in the Los Angeles of¬fice of LeBouf, Lamb, Green & MacRae, he was looking for a place conducive to raising a family when he answered an ad five years ago for an experienced litiga¬tor. He said he knew almost instantly that the firm and town would be perfect.
The feeling from the firm was mutual.
“We all had opportunities to work with good, solid firms in San Francisco or Los Angeles, and we all came to work here, in part for the lifestyle and ability to raise a family,” said Cage, who often rides his bike to work.
Faulkner said he runs on the beach on his lunch hour. Andrews works from home on Fridays, and Katz coaches his son’s basketball team on Wednesdays.
“It sounds Utopian,” Faulkner said. “But we have a sophisticated practice, and we get to do it in Santa Barbara.”