International law firm merges with Vegas company

Alana Roberts

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 | 10:59 a.m.

The big international business law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP has merged with the Las Vegas-based law firm of Quirk & Tratos for an undisclosed amount of money.

Quirk & Tratos, which focuses its practice in intellectual property law, entertainment law and art and Internet law, will now be known as Greenberg Traurig.

Mark Tratos, the Las Vegas office's managing partner, said the firm plans to expand into the areas of media and telecommunications law. He said the firm hasn't determined exactly when the expansion will take place or how many new lawyers will be hired. Currently the firm, which was founded in 1969, has 13 lawyers and 45 total employees.

Greenberg Traurig, which was founded in Miami in 1967, has offices in 29 cities across the country as well as in Europe and Asia and has 1,350 lawyers. The firm focuses its practice in a wide variety of business law areas.

Tratos said Quirk & Tratos is one of a small number of law firms in the country that focuses on art law, and said the firm ranked 25th in the country for the number of trademarks the firm files.

"The upshot is for a small company we're fairly high profile," Tratos said. "I think, more importantly, clients of ours like Greenspun Media (Group), Vegas.com, MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts, Boyd Gaming (Corp.) -- I think those kind of clients are always desirable. I think that probably had a lot to do with their interest in this firm."

Vegas.com and the Greenspun Media Group are owned by the Greenspun family, which publishes the Las Vegas Sun.

Tratos said the firm's clients will benefit from representation by firm with international reach.

"I think we have seen a trend in most areas of law towards consolidation in the same way we've seen consolidation in the gaming industry, where many of my clients have merged," Tratos said. "My view was that in order to adequately service these growing entities you have to be able to grow with them to provide a higher level of service."