Dreier Stein & Kahan LLP

"The firm, which will focus on mid-market clients, will be in sharp contrast to the mega-firms where law has simply become a business and not a profession," Kahan said in a statement.

DS&K clients include Endeavor, Hilary Duff, Lionsgate, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Love Hewitt, the Firm, the Olsen twins, Billy Bob Thornton, Marvel, Rosa Blasi, Sean Hayes, Seth MacFarlane, Aisha Tyler, Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth Thomason.

DS&K will also serve as the West Coast affiliate of Dreier, which continues to operate from New York headquarters. The firm said more than 40 lawyers have already joined.

From Business Wire

Uniting principals from two powerhouse legal firms, whose clients include some of Hollywood's most coveted talents, Dreier Stein & Kahan LLP (DS&K) has been established, effective January 1. The firm is led by Stanton "Larry" Stein and Robert L. Kahan, formerly Stein & Kahan, and most recently partners in Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan, and Marc Dreier, founder of Manhattan-based Dreier LLP. Based in Santa Monica's Water Garden complex, with a second office at Fox Plaza in Century City, DS&K will also serve as the west coast affiliate of Dreier LLP, which continues to operate from its New York headquarters. Over 40 lawyers have already joined DS&K, with more coming soon.

DS&K's primary areas of practice include entertainment litigation, intellectual property, commercial litigation, media, corporate, finance, securities, franchise and distribution counseling, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment, bankruptcy, insolvency and other areas of transactional and litigation law. The DS&K lawyers have received numerous awards over the years including a No. 1 ranking in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Lawdragon and many other trade publications.

Stein and Michael J. Plonsker, named "Entertainment Lawyers of the Year" by the Century City Bar Assn. in 2000 and 2005, respectively, and Stein by the Beverly Hills Bar Assn. in 2004, led the entertainment & media department at AGS&K and, with Yakub Hazzard, continue their roles at DS&K. Under their leadership, the talent-side practice has nurtured a roster of leading actors, writers, directors, producers, musicians, production companies, entertainment guilds, talent agencies and personal business and management companies.

Kahan, a past vice chair of the California State Bar executive committee business law section, headed the transactional department at AGS&K, where he and partners Susan Grueneberg and Steve E. Peden led the firm in mergers and acquisitions, securities, franchising, and general corporate matters. The transactional department represents both public and private mid market and entrepreneurial clients in many business segments including the restaurant/food industry, business management and entertainment industry.

Dreier founded Dreier LLP in 1996 as a more responsive and innovative alternative to traditional large-firm lawyering. Dreier LLP represents a wide range of institutional, entrepreneurial and individual clients in diverse sectors of financial, industrial and service-oriented markets. The firm's principal practices are commercial litigation, patent, trademark and other intellectual property law, real estate, trusts and estates, bankruptcy and corporate reorganization, employment law, labor law, governmental relations, corporate and securities. In the ten years since its founding, Dreier LLP has grown to a firm of more than 150 attorneys, with its principal office in Manhattan and satellite offices in Albany, NY and Stamford, CT.

"It has been my very good fortune to be able to establish this firm with Larry Stein and Bob Kahan and their colleagues who have already enjoyed such great success in this legal community," said Dreier. "I believe that in conjunction with our New York office we will have an extraordinary firm of very broad capabilities uniquely positioned to effectively serve a bi-coastal clientele."

Commenting on the new firm, Stein offered, "It is extremely gratifying that every single partner in the AGS&K entertainment litigation department has shown unity in joining DS&K en masse, and that all of our clients, without exception, will follow us to the new firm. This allows us to continue our 20-year-plus run as the preeminent talent and rights holder entertainment litigation firm. At DS&K, we will continue to expand our representation of companies that provide financial and creative services to studios, networks and record companies. DS&K will allow us to practice in a bi-coastal, mid-size firm where associates can be mentored and where clients' special financial and entrepreneurial legal needs can be accommodated."

"The firm, which will focus on mid-market clients, will be in sharp contrast to the mega-firms where law has simply become a business and not a profession," stated Kahan. "Marc Dreier, Bob Kahan and I, and the rest of our partners, share a belief that there is a better firm structure that excites, not burns out, young lawyers and where flexible billing and services allow a mid-size firm to represent their clients in specialty areas such as entertainment litigation," added Stein.

In addition to bringing aboard several litigation, corporate, securities and transactional lawyers from several top Los Angeles firms, DS&K's partners departing AGS&K include Susan Grueneberg, co-chair of its Asia Pacific practice group whose practice focuses on franchise law and other laws affecting methods of product and service distribution; Yakub Hazzard, co-chair of AGS&K's entertainment & media department; and Steve E. Peden, who counsels emerging and high-growth companies in business and corporate law including formation, growth and development, mergers and acquisitions, attracting and compensating management, and debt and equity financing.

The establishment of DS&K was assisted by the placement firm of Mark Bruce International.

DS&K's primary office is located on the fifth and sixth floors of The Water Garden, 1620 26th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Phone: 310-828-9050. Fax: 310-828-9101. Website: www.dskllp.com. The firm also has a Fox Plaza address in Century City: 2121 Avenue of the Stars, 24th Floor, Century City, CA 90067. Phone: 310-424-1120. Fax: 310-424-1121.