Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton - History

History

The firm's four name partners had distinctive careers.

• James C. Sheppard (1898–1964) was the first chairman of the American Bar Association Section of Labor Law in 1955, a member of the State Bar Board of Governors, and President of the State Bar of California in 1960-1961. When the United States entered World War II, Sheppard became Director of the Office of Civil Defense for eight western states.
• J. Stanley Mullin (1907–2000) was Chairman of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Sections and served on the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. In World War II, Mullin received a Navy commission and served with distinction in both theaters, including the Normandy invasion and the battle of Iwo Jima. He was an avid sportsman who participated in the 1932 Olympic Trials in equestrian events and was on the organizing committee for the 1960 Winter Olympic Games at Squaw Valley.
• George R. Richter (1910–2002) specialized in banking and commercial law. He helped author the original Uniform Commercial Code. A plaza at the USC School of Law is named after him.
• Gordon F. Hampton (1912–1996) helped develop the antitrust laws during the 1950s and was a founder of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section. He was a well known collector of contemporary art and a charter benefactor of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; a gallery at the Museum's California Plaza location is named after him.

In 1946, at a time when there were few women practicing law, Sheppard Mullin became one of a handful of law firms in Los Angeles to hire a female associate, the late Kathleen Parker. Ms. Parker went on to become one of the first female judges in Los Angeles County where she served on the bench for more than 30 years.

Sheppard Mullin's first branch office opened in Orange County in 1977, followed by the openings of the San Francisco and San Diego offices in 1981 and 1986, respectively.

The twenty-first century has been a period of significant expansion for Sheppard Mullin: establishing a well known entertainment practice in Century City (2001); establishing a dedicated video-game practice group (2009); also in 2001 opening offices in Santa Barbara and Del Mar Heights—the latter located in the biotech corridor near San Diego; expanding to the East coast, opening offices in Washington, D.C., and in New York (2003); going global with the firm's first international office in Shanghai (2007); opening in Silicon Valley (2008); opening in Beijing, Brussels and London (2011); and most recently opening in Chicago and Seoul (2012).