Lathrop & Gage LC will combine with Los Angeles litigation and intellectual property firm Spillane Shaeffer Aronoff Bandlow LLP in a deal scheduled to close on Jan. 1. The merger makes Lathrop & Gage only the second Kansas City-based law firm with an office in Southern California. “It makes us a coast-to-coast law firm,” Lathrop’s CEO says.
The ongoing housing slump has caused fewer new real estate agents to enter the field, and the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors has seen 1,000 existing agents leave its rolls.