Durie Tangri adds white collar specialist

Durie Tangri LLP welcomed Andrew Esbenshade as the third partner in its Los Angeles office Monday, reuniting a trio of white collar litigators from Caldwell Leslie & Proctor in the process.

Esbenshade has handled complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal matters in recent years, according to a statement from the firm, in addition to substantial experience trying trade secret and class action matters.

A graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, Esbenshade is also a former clerk to U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the Central District of California.

Esbenshade was a longtime partner at the litigation boutique Caldwell Leslie & Proctor ahead of his move to Boies Schiller Flexner LLP as partner in April 2017. His addition at Durie Tangri puts him back together with former Caldwell colleagues Michael J. Proctor and Benjamin Au.

“Working with Michael and Ben is definitely an attraction, and really, I think that the opportunity to return to a smaller firm environment like the one I’d spent most of my career is something that is of great interest and something I wanted to pursue,” Esbenshade said Friday. Proctor and Au, both white collar-criminal defense specialists as well, moved to Durie Tangri in 2018 to help expand the firm’s trade secrets and employee mobility practice. Proctor, the leader of the firm’s Los Angeles office, said Friday he’s happy to be working again alongside a top litigator he’s called a colleague for most of the last two decades.

“Andy and I go back to 2003,” Proctor said. “We’ve worked on cases and gone to battle with one another dozens of times. It’s always been great to count on Andy.”

He’s also thrilled to be welcoming Esbenshade to the firm’s new, 10,000 sq. foot office space in the heart of the Los Angeles Arts District. Located on Third Street, between the Hauser & Wirth gallery and Southern California Institute of Architecture, the trendy downtown-adjacent neighborhood was intentionally chosen with clients in mind, Proctor said. And with six associates on staff in LA currently, it’s certainly a great selling point for recruiting new lawyers.

“Our clients relate to us better in this space,” Proctor said. “We have found that great young lawyers are very interested in working in a modern environment.”