Our History

 
 

Ferris & Britton traces its roots to the law firm established on April 1, 1970, when two young lawyers opened shop in the historic San Diego Trust & Savings Building in Downtown San Diego. Since the furniture was late in arriving that day, they interviewed their first clients while sitting on packing crates full of law books. With a vision for an exclusively business oriented civil practice of unsurpassed excellence they soon outgrew those premises. The Firm has moved on to successively larger quarters. The Firm is now located on the 14th floor of the Koll Business Center with its stunning views of San Diego Bay.

With its growth the Firm has logged some impressive milestones:

  • Helping to fashion regulations implementing California’s Corporate Securities Act,

  • Effecting settlement of long-running water rights disputes between certain Indian tribes and Southern California water districts,

  • Assisting the cable television industry in achieving fair pole attachment rates from the utility companies,

  • Successfully blunting efforts by cable television competitors to hobble cable companies through unfair application of anti-trust laws,

  • Redefining the way certain possessory real property interests are taxed in California,

  • Fashioning imaginative ways to protect employers from employment claims and labor union organizing, and

  • Pioneering earliest-stage private and public offerings of technology company stocks.

Its attorneys now offer expert service in the areas of corporate, corporate finance, business transactions, biotechnology, telecommunications, technology licensing and partnering, business litigation, employment, labor, real estate, tax and estate planning law. Its practice is diverse, sophisticated and national. Clients run a broad spectrum from publicly traded companies to high-income individuals. Clients appreciate its ability to efficiently and economically handle matters ranging from the most complex and exacting to routine business transactions and civil litigation.

Today, the firm occupies a unique niche in the San Diego and Southwestern legal communities, offering, as it does, the capability and excellence of a mega-law firm, but at less expense and with greater responsiveness. The Firm’s original vision still informs the policies and direction of the Firm. It stands alone in the San Diego region as the intelligent choice of business leaders and individuals seeking a superior alternative to the mega-firm.