Shaw Pittman targets high tech work with LA merger

Klein & Martin is a three-partner Los Angeles-based firm that has a longstanding relationship with Shaw Pittman, forged by Bill Peters, a partner responsible for the operation of the Los Angeles office, and Clara Martin, one of Klein & Martin's founding partners. The firms occupied the same building in Los Angeles.
Shaw Pittman London partner Alistair Maughan said: "The two partners got talking and figured out that the firms' aims were the same and that we'd be a good fit."
Maughan said: "This was about following our clients' needs."
Shaw Pittman is known for its work in the technology market, but it also has strength in the healthcare, banking and energy sectors.
Maughan said: "We're focusing on the significant users of technology and the convergence of technology and healthcare. For example, the use of databases for prescription information or the administration of healthcare over the internet. These two main focuses are the same for Klein & Martin. We're also both looking to move in the same direction."
Klein & Martin does a large amount of non-contentious technology work for Fortune 100 companies. Maughan puts its success down to its commitment to the technology market. "It's stuck to what it knows best and clients have realized that," he says. "However, sooner or later the firm was going to hit a glass ceiling. It suited us as we felt a merger with a general corporate firm would devalue our brand. We're not after size for its own sake."
The merger will bring the number of Los Angeles-based lawyers to 23.