Hill, Farrer & Burrill LLP

Hill Farrer & Burrill LLP is a 103-year-old Los Angeles law firm headquartered downtown at One California Plaza. The firm operates from a single office with approximately 40 attorneys and 35 support staff, intentionally maintaining a mid-sized footprint after operating at larger headcounts in prior decades. Top practice areas are litigation, labor & employment, real estate, and trusts & estates, with additional capabilities in bankruptcy, corporate, and general practice.

The firm runs almost entirely on long-tenured client relationships, many spanning decades and full-career partner tenures. Culture is collegial, stable, and quality-driven: secretaries with 30-year tenures, partners who built careers at the firm, and a low-ego environment focused on craft and client service. Hill Farrer positions itself as a sophisticated mid-sized alternative to BigLaw — high-caliber work and demanding clients, but without the scale, hours, or bureaucracy of an AmLaw 100 firm.

Compensation is built around a distinctive structure written into the partnership agreement: associates receive a guaranteed base salary, and once they demonstrate profitability, the partnership can vote them onto "the system," which pays out a monthly percentage of collections on top of base. This produces real upside for productive associates and is a defining feature of the firm's economic model.