Can They Get a Table?

A lot of law firms are going hungry these days with the slow economy. But Pachulski, Stang and Ziehl in Los Angeles won’t starve.

It filed bankruptcy papers for Los Angeles Brewing Co., parent of the West Los Angeles eatery Eureka.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is a 10% partner in Los Angeles Brewing Co., which also had a boutique brewery. Eureka closed in May, although it may be revived. (The company’s problems do not affect Puck’s other restaurants--Spago in West Hollywood, Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, Granita in Malibu and Postrio in San Francisco.)

In lieu of cash for its $25,000 retainer, Pachulski, Stang and Ziehl agreed to a “food credit” at Spago, Chinois on Main and Granita.

Lawyer Ira D. Kharasch said the arrangement stemmed from Los Angeles Brewing’s lack of cash. But he said the firm’s 23 lawyers frequently take clients to dinner, so the credit won’t be wasted.

“Our preferred retainer is always cash. This is something we normally would not do, but this is Wolfgang Puck,” Kharasch said.

Catching DAK Flak

Maverick electronics catalogue entrepreneur Drew Alan Kaplan is rarely a man of few words, even when writing about the recent bankruptcy filing of his DAK Industries.

The latest catalogue mailed by the Canoga Park firm includes a full-page letter from Kaplan to “fellow DAKonians” titled, “Save Big, Help Drew.” The letter, in the rambling style Kaplan uses in his catalogues, is a plea to order items, although it does not mention DAK’s bankruptcy filing.

What is unusual is that Kaplan uses the letter to criticize an unnamed “multinational” bank that he blames for being too stingy in extending credit because bank management changed. “DAK was small, but so was David,” Kaplan warns cryptically.

The bank is Japan’s Tokai Bank Ltd., and the bank’s executives are unhappy. Rian Lidschin, a vice president with Tokai’s California operation, said the bank disagrees with Kaplan’s version, adding that the management changes reflect executive rotation common in Japanese banks.

Kaplan says he wanted to explain the company’s financial problems to customers himself. He adds that the full-page plea to loyal customers to order from his catalogue was a “home run” marketing move expected to generate an additional 15,000 to 20,000 orders over projections.

Will It Have a Telethon?

Labor Day marks the end of the summer season and the start of Albert Maguire’s campaign season.

Maguire, 76, who owns a stock brokerage in Santa Maria and is chairman of a bank in Arroyo Grande, has been on a 40-year, one-man crusade to have the Saturday before Labor Day declared “Capital Day.”

Maguire envisions parades and speeches praising capital’s benefits. He says capital is unappreciated. He says he recorded just three references to it during the conventions, all by Housing Secretary Jack Kemp.

Briefly. . .

Save your receipt: Irvine mayoral candidate Marc Goldstone promises a money-back guarantee to any dissatisfied campaign contributors . . . The Overpriced Stock Service newsletter says, “We expect the Clinton Administration to act like a new CEO: take a huge restructuring charge and blame it on the previous Administration”. . . The late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell’s son, Kevin, would need about $44,500 a day for 50 years to pay off the $813.3 million he owes creditors.