COSTA MESA, Calif., October 00, 2010 – Rutan & Tucker, LLP, California’s largest full-service law firm based in Orange County, has announced that nine of the firm’s partners have been selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2011 edition of Best Lawyers®, which is the oldest and 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 3.1 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 and Corporate Governance and Compliance Law; Michael T. Hornak, Commercial Litigation; John B. Hurlbut, Jr., Commercial Litigation; David C. Larsen, Public Sector Labor and Employment Law; Paul F. Marx, Trusts and Estates; Richard Montevideo, Environmental/Water Law; and James L. Morris, Labor and Employment Law. All nine attorneys are again returning to the prestigious list, with Larsen making the honor roll for more than 20 years and Marx for more than 15 years. Babbush has been a partner in the firm since 1988 and is a former member of its Executive Committee. A specialist in real property law, he is a 1982 graduate of Hastings College of the Law. Brockington has been a partner in the firm’s Corporate Section since 1986. An expert in corporate and securities law, he 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. 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 and the Orange County Public Law Center’s 2007 Attorney of the Year. Larsen has been a partner at the firm since 1979. A member of the Public Law Section, he received his law degree from the University of Utah Law School in 1973. Marx has been a partner at the Firm since 1979. He has more than 50 years of experience as a tax, tax litigation and trusts and estates lawyer, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956. Montevideo has been a partner at Rutan & Tucker since 1992 and chairs the firm’s Environmental Law Practice Group. He received his law degree from Ohio State College of Law in 1984. Morris has been a partner at the firm since 1985. He is the former chair of the firm’s Employment and Labor Law Section and 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 singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.” “It’s an honor for Rutan & Tucker partners to again be selected by their peers as being among the best lawyers practicing in America,” said Ski Harrison, the firm’s managing partner. Steven Naifeh, president of Best Lawyers, says, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for 28 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of recognition in the legal profession.”
