Moving Metal

LONGTIME LAW FIRM

T he Los Angeles law firmof Lawler, Felix & Hall handled much of Reliance’s legal work since 1957 and was home to longtime Board member Bob Henigson and Reliance’s first General Counsel, Kay Rustand. The firm was founded in 1911 by prominent Los Angeles attorney and former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Oscar Lawler. James E. Degnan was Lawler’s original partner, and they opened their civil practice as Lawler & Degnan in Los Angeles’ old Security Building at the corner of 5th and Spring Streets. Max Felix joined the firm in 1929, and it became Lawler & Felix when Degnan retired in 1938. When John M. Hall came aboard a year later, the firm was renamed Lawler, Felix & Hall. Over the years, Lawler, Felix & Hall provided legal representation to some of the West Coast’s most important businesses, including Standard Oil of California, Western Union Telegraph Company, and Farmers & Merchant National Bank. Cowboy comedian Will Rogers was Lawler’s most famous client during the 1930s. In 1957, Reliance became a permanent client when Thomas Neilan hired the firm to represent his company. The firm merged with Cleveland-based Arter & Hadden in 1989 to become Arter, Hadden, Lawler, Felix & Hall. Founded in

1843, Arter & Hadden was one of the oldest law firms in the country and was embarking upon an ambitious nationwide expansion program. The Lawler, Felix & Hall name was retired in 1993, and the consolidated firm’s name reverted back to Arter & Hadden. Arter & Hadden was the lead securities counsel in the 1994 Reliance IPO, performing extensive due diligence—going back in the Reliance minute books all the way to 1939—to prepare the initial draft of the prospectus and registration statement. Arter & Hadden was integrally involved in finalizing and filing the IPO documents. It was a coordinated effort with long hours and multiple “all hands” meetings, discussing the best approach to accomplish the goal of selling Reliance’s stock in order to provide a public market for the employees and family and friends who had come to own the stock over the years. Through the rest of the decade, the firm was integrally involved with Reliance’s acquisitions—including the necessary filings with the Federal Trade Commission. By the late 1990s, Arter & Hadden had expanded from about seventy lawyers to a national firm with 465 lawyers in a dozen offices in Ohio, Texas, California, and Washington, D.C. But the firm failed to handle this growth and

Lawler, Felix & Hall attorney Bob Henigson, left, with Robert Zurbach in the mid-1960s.

closed its doors in July 2003. Lawler, Felix & Hall’s legacy remains alive, through Bob Henigson and Kay Rustand’s continuing strong relationship with Reliance. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Dave and more recently Karla on over fifty acquisitions to watch Reliance grow from a California- based, family-owned company to a multi- national, Fortune 500 Company,” noted Rustand.

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