COSTA MESA, Calif., October 10, 2012 – Rutan & Tucker, LLP, Orange County’s largest full-service business law firm, has announced that nine of the firm’s partners have been selected by their peers for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America® 2013, (Copyright 2012 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC), which is one of the most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.
First published in 1983, Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive annual peer-review survey. For the new U.S. edition, more than 50% of the lawyers listed in Best Lawyers cast more than three million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in the same and related specialties.
The partners and their legal specialties are:
• Randall M. Babbush, Real Estate Law;
• Thomas G. Brockington, Corporate Law;
• Thomas J. Crane, Corporate Law;
• Eric J. Fromme, Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law;
• Michael T. Hornak, Commercial and Intellectual Property Litigation;
• John B. Hurlbut, Jr., Commercial and Real Estate Litigation;
• Paul F. Marx, Tax Law, Trusts and Estates and Tax Controversy Litigation;
• Richard Montevideo, Environmental/Water Law; and
• James L. Morris, Labor and Employment Law (on behalf of Management) and Labor and Employment Litigation.
Eight of the attorneys are again returning to the prestigious list, with Fromme making it for the first time.
Babbush has been a partner in the firm since 1988 and is a former member of its Executive Committee and a former chair of the Real Estate Group. His practice focuses on real estate law and real estate finance. He is a 1981 graduate of Hastings College of Law.
Brockington has been a partner in the firm’s Corporate Section since 1986. He focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and technology transactions, and is a 1980 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley Law School.
Crane is a former managing partner with the firm, specializing in business acquisitions and sales; securities; technology and licensing; corporate finance; and business organizations. He received his law degree in 1982 from Georgetown University Law Center and has been a partner in the Firm since 1989.
Fromme joined the firm in 2010 after practicing in New York, and became a partner in 2011. A highly regarded federal-court litigator and corporate reorganization lawyer, he earned his law degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law in 1997.
Hornak is a former Rutan & Tucker managing partner. He has been a litigator and corporate counselor since graduating from UCLA Law School in 1978, and has been a partner in the firm since 1984.
Hurlbut became a partner in 1970, and has been practicing business litigation at the firm since graduating from Stanford Law School in 1964. He is a former managing partner of the firm.
Designated a Best Lawyer since 1995, Marx has been a partner at the Firm since 1989. He has extensive experience in tax law, trusts and estates and tax controversies, and graduated from Harvard Law School.
Montevideo has been a partner at Rutan & Tucker since 1992, founded and has chaired the firm's Environmental Law Practice Group since 1992 and has chaired the Orange County Bar Association Environmental Law Section since 1995. He received his law degree, with honors, from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1984.
Morris has been a partner at the firm since 1985. He is a former member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the immediate past chair of the firm’s Employment and Labor Law Section. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1977.
Because of the rigorous and transparent methodology used by Best Lawyers, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a prestigious honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”
“It’s an honor for these Rutan & Tucker partners to be selected by their peers as being among the best lawyers practicing in America,” said Kim Thompson, the firm’s managing partner.
About Rutan & Tucker LLP
Rutan & Tucker is California’s largest full-service law firm headquartered in Orange County, California with offices in Costa Mesa and Palo Alto. Primary practice areas include business and real estate litigation, corporate and securities law, labor and employment law, intellectual property, real estate, municipal and government agency law, land use law, bankruptcy, condemnation and property valuation, environmental law, and taxation and estate planning. Detailed information about the firm is available at www.rutan.com.
About Best Lawyers
Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”