Manatt puts everyone at the same table.

The hospital transaction had a constituency larger than its negotiating table. When Sharp HealthCare entered a 30-year affiliation with Tri-City Healthcare District, residents of three California cities had a say. The agreement went through a public vote, regulatory review and nearly a year of negotiations. A signature was only one of the things needed to make the arrangement work.

01 / The deal that needed voters

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips represented Sharp. Its work included negotiating agreements, navigating California’s Office of Health Care Affordability review and supporting the public meeting and ballot process. Real estate, debt, tax and environmental questions also entered the picture. The affiliation closed on June 30, 2026; Sharp assumed operations the following day.

Consider the organizational problem tucked inside that account. A hospital executive needs a workable arrangement across all those subjects. Advisers can each provide a correct answer within their specialty while leaving the executive to reconcile the answers. Manatt’s proposition is to do more of that reconciliation inside the firm.

That makes it an interesting company to understand even if you never intend to hire a lawyer. The business is built around a familiar irritation: being passed from one expert to another, carrying the explanation yourself.

02 / The handoff was the problem

Charles Manatt and Thomas Phelps founded the firm in Van Nuys in 1965. Banking, entertainment and government became important roots. Those fields have something in common: commercial opportunity and public rules are constantly negotiating with each other. Knowing the contract can be necessary without being sufficient.

Health care made the case for a different organization. In a 2019 account of its development, Manatt Health said the integrated model grew from listening to clients. Their legal challenges required an understanding of underlying business needs, missions and strategic priorities. The client’s problem kept spilling beyond the legal assignment.

The response was to bring lawyers together with consultants and other specialists. Manatt Health describes a team that includes MBAs, financial and technology experts, reimbursement specialists and former government officials. Its assignments range from Medicaid policy to strategic planning and payment reform. Aetna, Northwell Health and the State of North Carolina appear among its published clients.

“There’s no such thing in this world as a purely business or legal problem.”

Donna L. Wilson · Bloomberg Law · July 2024

That is a broad claim from the firm’s CEO and managing partner. The useful part is narrower: some expensive problems live between professional categories. A change in how care gets paid for can alter an operating plan, a technology decision and a contract at once.

03 / A creator, a lender, a model

Health care is the clearest illustration, but the same commercial logic appears elsewhere. Manatt’s entertainment practice dates to 1977. It represents talent, studios, labels, catalog owners, athletes and investors. Financing, distribution and licensing sit beside disputes. A creator building a business needs advice about what the work can earn and who controls it.

Financial services provides another version. Manatt advises banks, payments platforms, lenders and digital asset businesses on transactions, compliance and enforcement. Its energy practice brings legal, regulatory, commercial and engineering experience to development and finance. The connecting thread is a business decision whose outcome depends on several rulebooks.

In April 2026, Manatt added AI Consulting and Testing. The offering covers governance, testing and evaluation, procurement and vendor oversight, and continuing monitoring. Its technical work includes model validation and bias testing. Here the firm is extending its proposition into evidence: a governance document needs to connect to how a system performs.

Nor has the traditional litigation work disappeared. In October 2026, Manatt reported representing Midwest Real Estate Data in a dispute with Zillow over listing data. The court denied preliminary injunctive relief and directed the matter to arbitration. That was a procedural outcome; the dispute had further to go.

There is a smaller doorway, too. Manatt on Health sells subscriptions to policy and legal analysis, webinars and state trackers. Its Health AI Policy Tracker launched in 2024. An organization can buy recurring specialist information without making every new development a separate consulting assignment.

04 / The price of putting people together

Manatt earns money through professional engagements and its information subscription. The American Lawyer reported $509.7 million in gross revenue for 2025, up from $455.9 million in 2024. Those numbers establish commercial scale. They do not, by themselves, establish that an integrated team saves a particular customer money.

For a buyer, the practical question is scope. Which people will do the work, who coordinates them, and what decision must the engagement produce? Bringing several disciplines together can reduce handoffs. It can also add meetings unless someone owns the result. A narrow assignment may need only a narrow specialist.

Research provides another meeting point. With Robert Wood Johnson Foundation support, Manatt examined consumer health data privacy in a 2020 white paper. It addressed gaps affecting information outside existing health privacy protections and considered possible frameworks. The assignment connected legal analysis with a policy question facing an entire industry.

The firm’s physical arrangements offer an amusing clue to its intentions. A 2023 Daily Journal tour described equal-size glass offices for Los Angeles professionals, with corner spaces reserved for conference rooms. Rank did not buy the corner. Colleagues got a place to meet.

05 / Borrow the meeting, not the payroll

There is a cultural commitment beyond the office plan. Manatt signs the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and says it meets or exceeds its threshold of 3% of lawyer hours. Consultants and other staff contribute additional time. The firm applies its professional mix to work outside commercial engagements, too.

The transferable idea is quite practical. A smaller organization can ask its lawyer, finance lead and operating team to work from one brief. Give them the same assumptions, a common deadline and a named decision-maker. That is an editorial lesson from Manatt’s structure, rather than a promise about results.

Manatt occupies the space where a specialist law firm and a business consultancy might otherwise receive separate calls. Its appeal depends on the assignment: several disciplines must have something useful to contribute. In the hospital deal, the contract had to survive contact with regulators, operations and voters. That is a good reason to invite everyone to the table early.