Los Angeles

With more than three decades in Southern California, Skadden’s Los Angeles office represents U.S.-based and multinational clients, including a wide variety of California-based Fortune 500, middle-market and privately held companies in industries as diverse as the region, including technology, media/entertainment, retail/apparel, beauty/ personal care, food and beverage, aerospace, health care, gaming, real estate, manufacturing and private equity, among many others.

Our attorneys advise on a range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and private equity. Our litigation practice includes a high-profile trial group and advises on securities, class and derivative actions, and white collar and government enforcement litigation. Additional areas of practice include banking, corporate restructuring, labor and employment law, and real estate. Through our collaboration with Skadden’s Palo Alto office, clients benefit from additional counsel in the areas of intellectual property transactions, executive compensation and benefits, IP litigation and tax, and we leverage the firm’s global network to meet client needs around the world and across the practices.

In 2024, the Los Angeles Business Journal named Skadden a Most Admired Law Firm To Work.

Corporate

Our corporate attorneys advise on many of the highest-profile deals in the marketplace. While these generally are the most visible, we handle many middle market corporate transactions as well. We counsel public and private business, private equity firms, investment banks, entrepreneurs and family businesses on a wide range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, private equity investments and fund formation, as well as on securities law compliance, directors’ duties and corporate governance issues. Our attorneys have repeatedly been recognized as leading lawyers by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, including in M&A, private equity and media and entertainment, and we have more corporate attorneys listed in The Best Lawyers in America than any other law firm in Los Angeles.

Our M&A attorneys are known innovators of key developments in many of the most complex and significant transactions. Skadden’s Los Angeles capital markets experience encompasses the complete spectrum of equity, debt and hybrid instruments issued by U.S. and international companies in global markets. In addition, we have been at the forefront of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs and related transactions. On the strength of our reputation for handling the most complex deals, as well as our robust league table rankings, we have been widely recognized as one of the leading capital markets practices in the country, including by Chambers USA, which places us in its prestigious top tiers in California.

Our established private equity practice represents private equity firms in connection with all aspects of their businesses, including structuring and organizing fund sponsors and their investment funds, executing acquisition, financing and exit transactions, and providing transactional and general corporate advice to portfolio companies.

Litigation

Skadden’s Los Angeles litigation department, which has been awarded Benchmark Litigation’s “highly recommended” ranking, represents clients in high-stakes, high-profile international, national and local litigation. Our litigation attorneys regularly appear in trial and appellate courts at the federal and state levels, before administrative tribunals, and in arbitrations and other alternative dispute resolution proceedings. Skadden is well positioned to help clients navigate the legal landscape when business conduct results in concurrent criminal, civil and/or administrative proceedings that require a strategically coordinated response. Skadden’s general commercial litigation, securities litigation, and government enforcement and white collar crime practices are ranked in Chambers USA for California.

Our Los Angeles office includes former federal prosecutors from the Office of the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, each with significant trial experience, including the former deputy chief of the General Crimes Section and the former assistant chief of the Criminal Division. Lawyers in this group are active in a variety of cases brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the SEC and have extensive experience in the regulatory and enforcement issues confronted by all participants in the securities markets, including public accounting firms, broker-dealers, investment companies and investment advisers.

Banking

Banking attorneys in the Los Angeles office regularly handle domestic and international transactions representing a wide range of financial institutions, borrowers and equity sponsors. We advise clients on syndicated credit facilities for investment grade and non-investment grade companies, acquisition financings, bridge loan transactions, restructurings, workouts and debtor in possession and exit financings, mezzanine debt financings and project financings. Skadden attorneys also have handled numerous leveraged financings. Chambers USA ranked Skadden’s banking practice in the first tier for California.

Corporate Restructuring

Our corporate restructuring attorneys represent public and private companies in Delaware and throughout the country in varied out-of-court workouts and financial restructurings, prepackaged bankruptcies, traditional Chapter 11 cases and complex troubled litigations. We lead restructuring transactions while drawing on the firm’s M&A, banking, corporate finance, securities, litigation, real estate, regulatory, tax and capital markets experience, and advise on insolvency issues in corporate and financing transactions and on all aspects of distressed M&A situations. Our group is ranked in Chambers USA for our bankruptcy and restructuring work in California.

Labor and Employment

Members of our Los Angeles Labor and Employment Group advise on a wide range of matters arising in representation proceedings, collective bargaining negotiations, arbitrations, litigation in state and federal courts, mediations and administrative proceedings before such government agencies as the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state human rights agencies, and the federal and state Departments of Labor. We advise employers on the full range of labor and employment issues that arise in the workplace.

Real Estate

Skadden’s Los Angeles real estate practice assists clients in structuring and executing a wide spectrum of transactions. We represent real estate investment trusts, developers, lenders, investment banks, opportunity funds, domestic and foreign investors, public companies, and private entrepreneurs in the full range of real-estate related transactions, and have multiple Los Angeles real estate attorneys ranked in Chambers USA.