Longtime litigator Halbert B. Rasmussen has seen the car dealership business change a fair bit over his more than four decades in the law.
"In the olden days, it was basically a certain number of local LA or Southern California families and individuals who practically owned all the dealerships," Rasmussen said, noting that many car dealerships started becoming publicly traded corporations in the mid-1990s.
"Now we have more and more private equity and hedge funds, and also more and more foreign investment coming in to buy these things," he continued. "Still, as much as the business has changed and you've got more sophisticated players being dealers now, even with the most sophisticated of them the factory still holds a lot of power over these dealers."
In 2017, Rasmussen decided to leave ArentFox Schiff LLP to join up with a former colleague, attorney Christian J. Scali, who was then running his own automotive retail boutique in Los Angeles.
"Chris and I were talking, and he suggested that maybe we ought to think about getting together and re-imagining what he had already started," Rasmussen recalled. "I knew he had accomplished a lot already, and while I liked ArentFox very much, Chris was offering a really great opportunity."
The duo teamed up and changed the existing firm's name to Scali Rasmussen PC, which is now home to 12 attorneys with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento. Much of what they do still focuses on servicing new motor vehicle dealers, according to Rasmussen.
"Everything from entity formation, M&A work with regard to the buying and selling of those businesses ... to government regulation and compliance issues," he explained. "And franchise litigation - where there's a fight between the factory and the dealer over the usual things they fight about: 'Is the dealer doing a good enough job selling cars?' Or 'Is the dealer properly submitting their warranty claims?'"
Jasmin B. Bhandari, a principal at the firm who joined in 2015, now co-chairs the labor and employment practice with Scali. She offers outside general counsel services to the firm's many dealership clients, helping with everything from compliance to transactional work and litigation.
"At the end of the day, these are folks who are business owners, and while they want to be compliant, ... they don't want to spend 100% of their time on compliance," Bhandari said. "They want to also run their business, so helping them do that is really a passion for me."
Rasmussen and Bhandari noted that the firm has branched out beyond automotive clients and is representing companies from other industries, including garment manufacturers and hospitality businesses.
Both attorneys mentioned the joy they take from working with longtime clients.
"I've been here for 10 years, so some of the clients that I started with - we've been able to work with them on the compliance to where now when an issue comes up, I know they know what to do because we've been through it before," Bhandari said. "A lot of times, they're family-run businesses or operations, and we've really been able to build that relationship with our clients and been able to guide them as the laws change and as their businesses change and grow."
Anthony D. Bento, chief legal officer for the California New Car Dealers Association, has worked with Rasmussen on cases in the past, and he described Scali Rasmussen PC as one of the state's best known auto dealer firms.
"Chris Scali and Bert Rasmussen have a tremendous amount of experience in representing interests in the regional automotive industry in California," Bento said. "They're one of a small number of firms that immediately comes to mind when dealers are seeking counsel."
Bento offered particularly high praise for Rasmussen.
"He's one of the premier franchise law attorneys in the state," Bento said. "There are very few attorneys that I know in California who have his combination of institutional knowledge, experience, skill and thoughtfulness in resolving dealer-manufacturer disputes."
Rasmussen made it clear, meanwhile, that he still takes a lot of satisfaction from arguing on behalf of dealers in cases against auto manufacturers.
"These dealer agreements are 60, 70 pages long, and they incorporate hundreds of pages of policies and procedures, so a dealer can be found in violation of something relatively easily," Rasmussen said. "If it weren't for the protections of these franchise laws that, for example, stop termination without the factory demonstrating good cause to the state agency - the New Motor Vehicle Board - they'd be facing a forfeiture. So, I really enjoy vindicating their rights and protecting them in the franchise litigation."
Steven A. McKelvey Jr., a Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP partner who regularly represents automotive manufacturers, has opposed Rasmussen on several cases over the years.
"What you hope to find across the table is a lawyer who represents his clients zealously but at the same time is respectful and experienced and knowledgeable and credible," McKelvey said. "And in my experience, Bert is all of those things."