Still Independent at Age 25 – JMBM

Los Angeles – October 18, 2006 – Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP (JMBM), one of California’s foremost full-service law firms, today announced the celebration of its 25th year in business. The Firm has remained independent and focused on a distinct range of practice areas during times of great change in the U.S. legal market.

"In an era when smaller law firms are being bought up by national giants, we are proud to remain a fiercely independent mid-sized firm,” said Founder and Managing Partner Bruce P. Jeffer. "Our business model enables us to give more personal attention to clients."

The anniversary will be celebrated at two gala events at the Firms offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles event will take place on October 19 at the Firm’s Century City office; the Firm has been based in Century City since first opening its doors on November 1, 1981. Four of the Firm’s original partners – Bruce P. Jeffer, Robert E. Mangels, James R. Butler, Jr. and Marc Marmaro – remain in active practice at the helm of the Firm.

"The consistency provided by the four named partners has sustained the Firm’s growth and culture over the years, and we continue to support each other as both friends and business partners," Jeffer noted.

Although the Firm began as a small cohesive group, with just a handful of partners and associates, it quickly grew to become one of California’s best known law firms. The Firm’s influence grew when it opened a San Francisco branch in January 1985. It currently has about 150 attorneys in its two locations.

A turning point came in January 1987, when JMBM was hired to help a Puerto Rico hotel defend itself against multiple litigation stemming from a December 31, 1986 fatal fire. "This was a mass disaster, with more than 90 people killed. We had attorneys stationed in Puerto Rico for about three years dealing with the cases," recalled Mangels. "That brought us into the big leagues."

Indeed, since that case, the Firm’s Global Hospitality Group has handled more than $40 billion of hotel transactions involving more than 1,250 properties around the world. In the last five years alone, the Group has advised clients on more than 80 hotel-enhanced mixed-use projects. The practice also hosts two conferences a year – "The Hotel Developers Conference” and “Meet the Money®” – that attract hundreds of industry leaders. "I am proud of the team that we have built to specialize in serving owners, developers and lenders in all aspects of hotels, restaurants, resorts and hotel-enhanced mixed-use projects," said the Group’s chairman, James Butler.

The Firm garnered international attention again in October 2004, when it helped Los Angeles orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gary K. Michelson and his company, Karlin Technology, win a verdict valued at $570 million in a patent dispute case against New York Stock Exchange-listed Medtronic, Inc. Thereafter, Medtronic settled the lawsuit and purchased a portfolio of Dr. Michelson’s inventions for a total payment of $1.35 billion. The JMBM litigation team was led by partners Marc Marmaro and Stanley M. Gibson. "The Michelson patent case led to great results, showing that an individual practitioner could win a case against a huge corporation," said Marmaro. "It was one of my proudest moments here."