JMBM has offices in Century City (Los Angeles), San Francisco and Orange County. While a number of our clients are located in California, many of them come from all parts of the country - and often outside the U.S. For example, in 2008 we handled major matters for clients located in:

• New York, Chicago, Honolulu, Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Miami.
• China, Japan, Russia, Ireland, Costa Rica, Bali, Canada and Hong Kong.

Similarly, our litigators are often called upon to handle difficult cases across the U.S. For example, in recent years, JMBM has litigated on these venues:

• Tennessee: federal court trial, resulting in a $500 million jury verdict for our client in an IP litigation case;
• Texas: federal court in Texas in another high profile IP case;
• Michigan: a high stakes arbitration for a New York based client with offices all over the U.S.

The question we are most often asked by law students is, "What is your firm looking for in a young lawyer?"

We are looking for lawyers who are eager to take responsibility quickly and can handle it. Unlike many megafirms where matters are highly "leveraged" - with one partner and a horde of associates - our typical staffing has a ratio of one partner to one associate.

For law students with a long term focus, our practice of keeping our summer associate and new attorney classes small not only means more responsibility quicker, but also a greater chance to ultimately make partner.

Once upon a time lawyers did not talk about the fact that law firms are businesses also. Those days are long gone. Now, even law students want to know that a firm is a financially stable - realizing that a firm or an office of a firm that is not well managed can disappear overnight.

Here are the reasons why JMBM has been so successful as a business and has grown from 12 attorneys to over 150 in its brief history:

• a recognition that keeping clients happy with high quality work and fast, efficient service is the touchstone to a firm's success;
• a philosophy of "slow growth" each year, adding a few more people than the year before;
• a fiscally conservative managed firm, with no debt.