King & Spalding bets on 'One California' to fuel growth, recruiting and trial strength

King & Spalding's four California offices--Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sacramento--span some of the most distinct legal and cultural markets in the nation. Rather than letting those differences pull the offices apart, the firm is leaning into a strategy it calls "One California," an effort to integrate the offices operationally, culturally and strategically to drive growth, deepen talent and deliver more seamless service to clients.

Firm leaders say the approach reflects California's importance to King & Spalding's long-term plans and a belief that scale alone is not enough. What matters, they say, is shared systems, shared expectations and a shared sense of purpose across offices that might have operated more independently.

"California is a key growth market for King & Spalding," said Arwen R. Johnson, managing partner of the firm's Los Angeles office. "And over the past few years, we've grown dramatically in California. ... As part of the firm's latest iteration of its vision and strategy, the focus is on growing California as a whole."

King & Spalding, which was founded in 1885 in Atlanta, now has 1,300 attorneys in 26 offices around the globe. California's four offices are the most the firm has in any state.

At the core of the One California strategy is a deliberate shift away from office-by-office decision-making toward a statewide view of business development, staffing and recruiting. Johnson, who began her law firm career at a litigation boutique in Los Angeles, described a set of systems designed to make collaboration routine rather than aspirational.

"We really try to all row in the same direction in California and coordinate across the state on that growth and our vision for what King & Spalding in California looks like in the next five, 10, 20 years," she said.

One example is the firm's cadence of weekly meetings devoted specifically to California business development. Partners from all four offices are invited to discuss trial wins, active pitches, growth opportunities and client needs.

"We talk every week about our victories, about clients we are developing work for, about clients we're pitching work for... so that we can coordinate and make sure that we're all working together to put the best team on the field for our clients," Johnson said.

That same statewide lens applies to staffing. Johnson noted that when she served as a talent partner, geography was secondary to fit.

"It was just who's the best person to put on the field for this case to serve this client and build that relationship," she said.

The strategy has coincided with rapid growth, particularly in Los Angeles. When Johnson joined King & Spalding in 2020, the LA office had been open for only three years and had roughly 40 attorneys. It has since grown to about 70.

"That growth was the result of a real focus and commitment to investing in the California law schools," she said, as well as building strong relationships with judges, clerks and recruiting offices.

But Johnson said summer classes are intentionally smaller and more hands-on, with an emphasis on training, mentorship and early exposure to substantive work. Summer associates are also encouraged to build relationships across offices and practice groups.

"At King & Spalding, we offer this incredible program for summer associates where they can spend one week in another office of the firm of their choice," Johnson said. "It's almost like a little exchange program ... reflective of our ethos, which is that we are one law firm, even if we're an international law firm."

That philosophy is being applied internally within California as well, with associates encouraged to work across offices and markets.

Neel Chatterjee

While organic growth is central to the One California model, firm leaders say lateral hiring plays an equally important role--particularly at the partner level. The firm has added several high-profile figures, including Neel Chatterjee, a marquee patent lawyer in Silicon Valley, former 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul Watford and former federal prosecutor Will Rollins in Los Angeles and former U.S. attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento.

Will Rollins

According to Johnson, those hires share a common thread.

"There's a lot [that's] exciting to come to an international law firm that's still in growth mode in California," she said. "If you have that entrepreneurial spirit ... build something ... that spirit is very much a California spirit."

Chatterjee, who joined King & Spalding to help expand its Bay Area litigation and IP platform, echoed that view. He said the firm's commitment to litigation--and to building, not just maintaining, its California presence--was a key draw.

Paul Watford

"A firm that is very committed to having market-leading litigation as a core value proposition to the firm," he said, adding, "A lot of firms are reducing ... the size of their litigation practices and King & Spalding is doubling down on it."

Chatterjee also pointed to the One California strategy as particularly important in technology-driven practices.

"In tech and entertainment, there's a huge convergence," he said. "It's helpful to have people that have insights into both types of markets."

McGregor Scott

For Chatterjee, the integration of Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Sacramento creates a platform uniquely suited to the next wave of regulatory and technology disputes.

"I believe in the next kind of wave of major issues ... regulatory is going to be a centerpiece of tech business," he said. "That involves Sacramento and Washington, D.C. ... King & Spalding has made tremendous inroads there and having people in all those jurisdictions from a practice perspective makes a lot of sense."

California's legal markets are famously distinct, and firm leaders are not trying to erase those differences. Instead, they are emphasizing a shared identity as King & Spalding lawyers.

"I certainly agree there are some cultural differences between the different cities," Johnson said. "What we're focused on is the culture of being a King & Spalding lawyer and what that means to be a King & Spalding lawyer in California."

That shared culture allows the firm to deploy talent flexibly across offices. Former U.S. attorneys in Sacramento can assist with regulatory matters in Los Angeles. Tech litigators in Silicon Valley can support cases filed in Southern California. Consumer class action lawyers in LA can handle matters in the Northern District.

"Because we all know what each other does ... and because we're all fundamentally ... trial lawyers, we're able to slot in and assist each other," Johnson said.

Chatterjee described the approach as both practical and client-driven.

"When you look around the state, ... the One California strategy, I think, makes a lot of sense just because of the nature of the clients we're chasing," he said.

A major pillar of the firm's California strategy is developing the next generation of trial lawyers at a time when jury trials are less frequent.

"It is harder ... to get that stand-up trial experience as an associate," Johnson acknowledged. "But there are still a lot of ways to do it, and you have to be very intentional about it."

Those efforts include skills training, pro bono trial opportunities and deliberate advocacy with clients to give associates meaningful courtroom roles when they are ready. Mentorship, Johnson said, is embedded in daily practice rather than treated as a separate obligation.

"It doesn't become this separate calendar item," she said. "It's just ingrained in the day-to-day of your work."

Chatterjee highlighted another differentiator: the firm's emphasis on hiring former law clerks from local federal courts.

"Our focus on law clerk hiring, within these local courts, is a very big differentiator," he said. "It's just not something law firms are as focused on as they used to be."

The firm now boasts 39 former federal court clerks statewide.

Both Johnson and Chatterjee say they see continued lateral growth as essential, particularly among rising partners with deep local roots.

"I really want us to concentrate on people that are maybe in their late 30s, early 40s, who are rising stars," Chatterjee said, describing candidates who are building strong client relationships but still eager to grow.

Johnson said the firm expects to expand further in trial-focused practices, as well as areas such as securities, antitrust, products liability, life sciences and health care, while selectively building transactional depth.

"We're trying to grow California in a very strategic, collaborative way," she said. "We've set up systems in place that make that automatic and make it just kind of integral to the fabric of practicing law in one of the four California offices."