Longtime lawyer confirms Lionel Sawyer & Collins firm will be dissolved

Las Vegas’ legal industry shifted seismically Tuesday when longtime lawyer Sam Lionel, considered the dean of the Nevada Bar, confirmed that his Lionel Sawyer &Collins firm will be dissolved in January as he and eight others will join Fennemore Craig’s Las Vegas office.

Lionel, 95, and former Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer co-founded the firm 47 years ago. It was among the first Las Vegas law firms to open an office in Reno.

The powerful and politically connected firm, which represented major hotel developers on the Strip and gaming clients through the decades, has seen its lawyer roster whittled to about 35 after being the biggest in the state with more than 50 in Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City.

“If there ever was a Nevada legacy law firm, this is it,” said Dennis Kennedy, a Las Vegas lawyer who worked at Lionel Sawyer from 1975-2006 and is a friend of several current Lionel Sawyer attorneys. “It’s the end of an era. We’re passing into a new era of the legal business.”

Lionel, who has parked his car in the same law office space since 1967 and has been a Nevada Bar member since 1954, said his start date at Fennemore Craig next month is so far unknown.

He, along with former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and seven other Lionel Sawyer &Collins lawyers will move three floors down to Fennemore Craig’s 14th floor office in the Bank of America building at 300 S. Fourth St. in downtown Las Vegas.

“It’s an evolution. This gives us a larger platform,” Bryan said Tuesday. “It’s a natural evolution of the way the legal business is changing in the United States. It’s an exciting time for us.”

Bryan was a former two-term governor and also two-term U.S. senator who served in Washington with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid’s four sons also were former lawyers at Lionel Sawyer &Collins.

John Mowbray, the Las Vegas office managing partner for Fennemore Craig, called the move huge.

Mowbray said Lionel, at 95, is “sharp as a tack. I felt I was sitting at the feet of the master … never did I imagine in my wildest dreams did I think I would be practicing law with Sam Lionel.”

Lionel and Mowbray swapped stories Tuesday in a Fennemore Craig conference room. Lionel recalled appearing before Mowbray’s father, John. C. Mowbray, who served as a Nevada Supreme Court justice for more than 25 years.

“I argued in front of him at District Court and Supreme Court,” Lionel said. “I didn’t always agree with him, and he didn’t always agree with me — and that had more meaning.”

In the past year, the firm has lost many of its partners and associates to other law firms and businesses.

Former Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid left to form his own law practice, as did Paul Larson. Maximiliano Couvillier joined Black &LoBello and Mark Goldstein went to Baily Kennedy.

In the gaming division, longtime firm partner Ellen Whittemore left in the spring to form her own practice. Mark Clayton joined Greenberg Traurig in August and Jennifer Roberts became a partner at Duane Morris LLP in October.

In early December, Attorney General-elect Adam Laxalt named J. Brin Gibson as chief deputy to head the gaming division.

Besides Lionel and Bryan, two of the biggest names in Nevada law and politics, several other prominent lawyers are joining Fennemore Craig’s Las Vegas operations.

They include Jeffrey Zucker, who began as a “runner” for Lionel Sawyer decades ago and leads Lionel Sawyer &Collins’ business law department, specializing in real estate and corporate transactions.

Fennemore Craig is one of the Nevada’s largest law firms and is a major regional Mountain West legal player with more than 200 attorneys in offices in Las Vegas; Reno; Denver; Phoenix; Tucson, Ariz.; and Nogales, Ariz.

Besides the nine lawyers joining Fennemore Craig in Las Vegas, 10 others are joining Fennemore Craig in Reno.

Besides Lionel, Bryan and Zucker, other Lionel Sawyer &Collins lawyers joining Fennemore Craig in Las Vegas are Lynn Fulstone, Kevin Hejmanowski, Christopher Mathews, Christopher Walther, Ketan Bhirud and Mark Gardberg.

Lionel said that some of the Lionel Sawyer &Collins lawyers who are not joining Fennemore Craig will be starting their own law practices.

Review-Journal writer Howard Stutz contributed to this report. Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.