Kolesar & Leatham, the once-powerful law firm that specialized in banking and business and featured notable Nevada Republicans among its affiliated attorneys, is closing after 33 years.

Managing partners Robert Kolesar and Nile Leatham built their practice by specializing in banking, finance, real estate, trust, and bankruptcy law. The firm boasted as many as 30 attorneys with former Gov. Robert List, state Sen. Majority Leader Michael Roberson, and longtime Republican Party stalwart Joe Brown among its better-known names from GOP state politics.

All that changed in January when the managing partners were abruptly informed by a group of the practice’s younger attorneys that they were leaving the firm, informed sources say. Depending on the source, the announcement came either as a mere surprise or a real shock to the founding partners.

Kolesar, 76, was known as a mentor to many of the firm’s successful attorneys and staff, including some of the departing lawyers. Its attorneys were annually listed among the state’s “Legal Elite.”

Reached Wednesday, Kolesar acknowledged the impending closure, but declined to go into details of the decision behind it.

“After 33 years of successful law practice, I look forward to retirement,” Kolesar said. “We’ve had many good young attorneys at the office over the years, and I’m pleased that they’re going to end up on their feet.”

Kolesar, who spent the early part of his career with Valley Bank, expressed pride in the firm’s representation many of the state’s financial institutions over the past three decades. Some of those clients were pounded during the recession, but he said most of them “weathered it” and came back stronger.

The firm’s government affairs practice group made it a substantive player in politics and at the Legislature. That team included List, who also served as Nevada’s attorney general, Brown, a respected former member of the Nevada Athletic Commission and Gaming Commission, and Matthew Saltzman, a specialist in banking, gaming and liquor law. Kolesar & Leatham’s lobbying clients included Breakthru Beverage (formerly Wirtz Beverage of Nevada), NV Energy, Security Finance, and Sterling Bank Services Inc.

List and Saltzman are members of the board of directors of the conservative Keystone Corporation, whose fellow board member Robert Uithoven of j3 Strategies was formerly part of Kolesar & Leatham’s government affairs team.

After what some sources have described as a jolt to the founding partners, Kolesar reminds skeptics that he and Leatham are “getting along fine. There’s nothing going on between us.” 

Kolesar kept his chin up, but briefly waxed nostalgic. It takes years to build a successful law practice. Far longer, it appears, than it takes to close one.

“Its time may have come, and at 76 I’m far beyond the time most people retire,” he said. “I still enjoy it. Now it’s kind of sad as it winds up, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. I have no regrets.”

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR. His newest book—a biography of iconic Nevada civil rights and political leader, Joe Neal—”Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice” is published by University of Nevada Press and is available at Amazon.com. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith