Overview
The City and County of Los Angeles have long ranked among the most progressive of metropolitan areas, a vanguard of innovative policies that frequently serve as templates for the rest of the country. Yet the same forces that account for its forward-thinking reputation—innovative regulation, strong unions, and firm government oversight and approval—can make the city and county a complicated place to do business.
Whether you are bidding for or negotiating a government contract, tackling land use problems, navigating the regulatory framework, or reacting to public policy issues, you are apt to find the legal and political challenges unusually daunting. To make real headway, it pays for you to seek guidance from people who know from long experience how to get things done in this highly complex environment.
We work with the County, Los Angeles and all of its departments, other cities within the County, regional authorities such as Metro and Metrolink, the South Coast Air Quality Management District; the Coastal Commission and most of the other government agencies within the region.
The Home Team
Manatt has deep roots in the Los Angeles area. The firm was founded here and has been our home for over 50 years, over the course of which we have become a fixture in its civic and political life. Our strong team of government lawyers and other professionals, who are vested in the success of your undertaking, can deftly guide you through the inner workings of the myriad authorities, agencies and departments you encounter. We can provide you with strong and credible representation with councilmembers, supervisors, administrators and other policymakers; help you to obtain funding, grants, and contracts, and ensure compliance with state and local laws.
We have a solid track record of successfully advocating on behalf of clients. Our lawyers have long-standing relationships with officials at every level of government, and on both sides of the aisle—including key commissioners with jurisdiction over transportation, infrastructure and other development projects. Many have public service backgrounds themselves—serving on legislative or executive staffs, or in senior government positions—and bring the skills and contacts to bear on your matter.
With Manatt, your reach extends well beyond the Los Angeles area. Through our highly regarded government affairs practices in Sacramento, New York City, Albany, and Washington, D.C., we have the resources to advocate on your behalf at the state, regional and national levels, and to bring those resources to bear locally as well.
We take a strategic as well as creative approach in helping you solve the complex problems that may arise concerning the development, entitlement and utilization of land and natural resources.
We seek to resolve issues. But should your dealings with a government entity result in litigation, we can provide focused advocacy on your behalf.
Manatt represents clients from a wide range of industries—including the transportation, infrastructure, energy, healthcare, technology, real estate development and financial services sectors.
What we do
- Preparation of responses to public contract procurements
- Public policy and regulation
- Land use
- Ordinances and regulations
- City legislation
- Interpretation of City Charters and Administrative Codes
- Public franchise agreements
- Defense and protests of contract awards
- Prosecution and negotiation of contract claims
- Administrative hearings
- Writs and litigation
- Advice on public records, open meetings, ethics and election law
- Budget matters
- Government and community relations
- Dispute resolution
- Business strategy
Experience
- Assisted a developer in the entitlement of a 650,000 square foot condominium building, the largest residential high-rise project built to date in Century City. In addition to preparing the entitlement applications for the 42-story building and overseeing the preparation of the project's environmental impact report, we worked to obtain City Council support and avoided protracted litigation by entering into a multiparty settlement agreement with various surrounding stakeholders on terms favorable to the client.
- Represented a Fortune 500 company in a competitive procurement contract with the City of Los Angeles worth nearly $1 billion in revenues to the City. Representation included strategy and preparation of proposal; appearances before the appropriate commission; successful defense of a formal protest by a competitor; preparation of materials for the City Administrative Officer, Chief Legislative Analyst and City Council; representation before Council committees and the City Council; and award to the client.
- Handling various land use matters on behalf of a Los Angeles-area college, including campus master planning, site acquisition due diligence, entitlements for new educational facilities and dormitories, and the protection of the college's interests in connection with nearby developments.
- Advising a property owner in connection with the entitlements, development agreement, and environmental review for nearly 2,000,000 square feet of development on a ten-acre site covering approximately three city blocks in downtown Los Angeles. The mixed-use project will include over 1,000 residential units, 250,000 square feet of retail space, two boutique hotels and a small college campus.
- Represented a major construction management firm to successfully settle a contract dispute with Los Angeles World Airports in a matter worth $1.3 billion, avoiding multiple claims and protracted litigation.
- Represented an energy management company in connection with a $100 million contract with the City of Los Angeles to provide the technology for the Bureau of Sanitation's waste treatment facility, including a successful defense of a protest by the then current incumbent following 11 hours of hearings, and appearances before Council committees and the City Council.
- Negotiated the transfer of development rights in transactions worth several tens of millions of dollars.
- Successfully represented a hotel owner in the redevelopment of a city-designated landmark building into a luxury hotel, including Ellis Act evictions and subsequent litigation seeking to invalidate the project's settlement agreement and enjoin the building's use for hotel purposes.
- Represented a major rail carrier in obtaining approval of a $500 million intermodal facility at the Port of Los Angeles.
- Assisted one of the world's largest retailers in the development of various big-box stores, including the preparation of entitlement applications, counsel on initiatives and referenda, and the defense of environmental impact reports in California Environmental Quality Act litigation.
- Advising one of the world's largest movie theatre chains in connection with the renovation of its properties throughout Southern California and applications for alcohol conditional use permits and licenses.
- Represented a major airport service provider at LAX in a labor dispute with the SEIU, including SEIU complaints that the company was violating the City of Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance and other work rules. After successfully handling the administrative complaint, we were brought in to lead negotiations with the Union.
- Advocated on behalf of a coalition of cities in Los Angeles County for Metro's selection of a Gold Line light-rail extension that would best serve these cities. The work included the preparation of extensive comments on the environmental impact report's treatment of an alternative alignment that would bypass these cities.
- Represented a Fortune 100 company in connection with a $100 million contract with the City of Los Angeles to provide the technology for the Bureau of Sanitation's waste treatment facility, including a successful defense of a protest by the then current incumbent following 11 hours of hearings, and appearances before Council Committees and the City Council.
- Serving as lead land use counsel to one of the country's largest private sign companies in connection with entitlements, litigation, and government advocacy work, including negotiating development agreements for new signs, securing view corridors for existing billboards, and working closely with city officials on the crafting of sign ordinances, including issues involving the conversion of static billboards to digital billboards.
- Represented a major telecommunications company in facilitating deployment of its broadband system in the City of Los Angeles, including work with the Board of Public Works and the Department of Water and Power.
- Represented a provider of health and human services programs in its bid protest against the County of Los Angeles in connection with a $32 million contract for welfare-to-work services that had been awarded to a competitor. The protest resulted in the County changing its countywide procurement policy, and after the contract was rebid, the County selected our client for the contract.
- Represented a Fortune 500 company as the successful bidder on a $14 million contract to provide a new emergency dispatch system for Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff.
- Secured a critical $15 million for the engineering and design of a new Corridor-related project, the SR-47 Port Access Expressway.
- Filed a bid protest for a nonprofit hospital after another provider was selected by the County of Los Angeles to operate a Safe Children and Strong Families program in downtown Los Angeles. Our protest correctly identified several fatal flaws in the County's evaluation process, and the County ultimately canceled the procurement and extended our client's current contract while it prepares a new RFP for the services.
- Represented a major construction firm regarding permitting and compliance issues with the MTA and the City of Los Angeles.
- Successfully negotiated the sale of a waste transfer facility to the City of Los Angeles.
- Representing an international rail car manufacturer in a procurement with Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.
- Representing an international manufacturer of people mover systems at Los Angeles World Airports.
- Represented a major energy provider in assessing the likelihood that a City procurement process of the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation and resulting award to client would survive a protest. After advising the client to go forward, a protest was filed by the competitor's law firm. Representation included response to protest and hearing before the Board of Public Works. Following the presentations, the protest was denied and the staff recommendation was affirmed by a 5-0 Board vote. City Council approval followed.
Related Practices
Land Use
Federal Government Affairs and Public Policy
New York State Government, Regulatory Policy and Government Contracts
Government and Regulatory
Environment
Manatt Energy and Environment
Government Litigation and Administrative Law
California State Government and Regulatory Policy and Government Contracts
New York City Government, Policy and Government Contracts
Manatt Health
Select Clients
Honeywell
Invesco Advisers
Live Nation
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
MAXIMUS
Pathfinder Wind
Raytheon Company
Regency Outdoor Advertising
State Compensation Insurance Fund
Toyota Motor North America
The Related Companies
Xerox Corporation
