Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie is a U.S. law firm with approximately 300 attorneys across ten offices in
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, and
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. Its administrative offices are located in Phoenix, where it was founded in 1950 as Lewis & Roca.
The firm has handled
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
cases including
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), in which partners John P. Frank, John Flynn
and others represented
Ernesto Miranda
Ernesto Arturo Miranda (March 9, 1941 – January 31, 1976) was an American laborer whose criminal conviction was set aside in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case '' Miranda v. Arizona'', which ruled that criminal suspects must be informed of t ...
in the landmark
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
case, giving rise to "
Miranda Rights
In the United States, the ''Miranda'' warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection ...
."
Practice areas
The firm represents clients across a range of practice areas, managed through primary practice groups for
litigation
A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. ...
,
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
, business transactions,
gaming law
Gambling law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory la ...
, and regulatory and
government relations
Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by various entities, in ...
.
The firm’s largest practice group, litigation, includes lawyers in areas including
religious institutions,
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...
,
labor and employment law, IP litigation,
product liability
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has ...
,
appellate
In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...
and
real estate litigation. Attorneys handle commercial disputes before state and federal trial and
appellate court
An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...
s and administrative tribunals.
Many attorneys in the firm’s second largest practice group, intellectual property, have science and engineering backgrounds. The group handles cases of IP procurement, enforcement and defense, including IP licensing, IP strategy, prosecution and litigation for patents,
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
s,
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
s and
trade secret
A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP) comprising confidential information that is not generally known or readily ascertainable, derives economic value from its secrecy, and is protected by reasonable efforts to maintain its conf ...
s, and Internet law and domain disputes.
The business transactions practice group includes real estate and
construction
Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
, corporate services,
company formation,
mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
, insurance,
health care services, financial services,
land development
Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways, such as:
* Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or House, housing
* subdivision (land), Subdividing real estate into Lot ( ...
, and negotiating transactions.
The gaming practice group supports
casino
A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...
operators, suppliers, state and local
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
s,
communities
A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...
,
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
es,
non-profit organizations
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
,
tribal
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
governments and others in addressing casino gaming law including
Native American and
riverboat casino
A riverboat casino is a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to en ...
s,
racino
A racino is a combined horse racing track, or other live parimutuel betting facility, and casino. In some cases, the permitted form of casino gambling is limited to slot machines or video lottery terminals, but many locations also offer table ...
s, interactive and mobile gaming,
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
and interstate
horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
.
Lewis Roca has government relations practices in
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
and
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, focusing on public policy.
History
The firm was founded in Phoenix as Lewis and Roca,
by Orme Lewis and Paul Roca in 1950, with clients in Arizona and the southwest. The firm grew to 180 lawyers with offices in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Reno, Albuquerque and Silicon Valley, and practices within litigation, real estate and business transactions, natural resources, gaming, intellectual property, and
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
.
In 2013 the firm merged with Denver-based Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons, which has operated in the Rocky Mountain region since 1903 with 75 lawyers and offices in Denver, Colorado Springs and Casper, and practice areas in litigation, real estate, banking, insurance, energy infrastructure and religious institutions. The merged firm was renamed Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.
On January 1, 2016, Lewis Roca Rothgerber combined with Christie, Parker & Hale, a Los Angeles-based intellectual property firm, to become Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP. Founded in 1954 by James Christie, Robert Parker and Russell Hale, CPH had included about 40 attorneys in Los Angeles and Orange County and had handled patent work for
SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air launch, air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to /
using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "Feathering (reentry), feathering" atmosph ...
, the first privately funded human space flight, among other clients.
Notable alumni
Notable alumni of the firm include former Wyoming Governor and ambassador to Ireland
Mike Sullivan; former
Arizona Governor and Secretary of the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic administrator. She served as president of the University of California from 2013 to 2020, on the faculty at the Goldman School of Public Policy at t ...
; Honolulu civil rights attorney
David Schutter; and
James Lyons, who was Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State for Economic Initiatives in Ireland and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
.
Notable judicial alumni include
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts:
* Distric ...
Judge
Mary M. Schroeder,
United States District Court for the District of Arizona Judge
John C. Hinderaker, former
Arizona Supreme Court
The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justice, and five associate justices. Each justi ...
Chief Justice Scott Bales, and
Arizona Court of Appeals
The Arizona Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Arizona. It is divided into two divisions, with a total of twenty-eight judges on the court: nineteen in Division 1, based in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, and nine in ...
Judges David Gass and David Weinzweig.
Phoenix lawyers
John Paul Frank and John J. Flynn of Lewis and Roca and others represented Ernesto Miranda on a
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
basis, which led to the landmark ''
Miranda v. Arizona'' decision on June 13, 1966 in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared the specific rights set of for criminal defendants.
The
Miranda warning
In the United States, the ''Miranda'' warning is a type of notification customarily given by Law enforcement in the United States, police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right t ...
is the formal warning that is now required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial situation) before they are interrogated, in accordance with the ''Miranda'' ruling.
Recognition and rankings
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie attorneys were included in the 2016 "Best Law Firms" rankings by ''
U.S. News & World Report''.
Locations
*
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
*
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
*
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
*
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
*
Denver, Colorado
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
*
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...
*
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
*
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...
References
External links
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie homepageChambers USA profileProfilefrom
LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
Organizational Profile from The
National Law Review
''The National Law Review'' is an American law journal, daily legal news website and legal analysis content-aggregating database. In 2020 and 2021, ''The National Law Review'' published over 20,000 legal news articles and experienced an uptick ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis And Roca
Law firms established in 1950
Law firms based in Phoenix, Arizona