Get to know me
Raised in the states of Washington and Connecticut, educated at the University of Utah and schooled in law at California Western School of Law, Jay has broad experience with different cultures and peoples within the United States and with clients, friends and acquaintances from around the world.
Before attending law school, Jay worked in the field of mass communication to follow an interest in the First Amendment. He worked at within the news media at a daily newspaper and a popular news-radio station and also at public relations and advertising agencies.
In law, in 1986, Jay began practicing first amendment law for newspapers Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, a prominent Wall Street firm with a Los Angeles office. After the collapse of the several client-owned newspapers in the late 1980’s, an opportunity arose to work on a large scale real estate development owned by The Hearst Corporation at San Simeon. On that project for 15 years, Jay served as West Coast counsel to Hearst to develop 2 golf courses, three hotels and a commercial retail development on the historic oceanfront estate of William Randolph Hearst. Jay also served as counsel to the Hearst family trust, one of the largest dynasty trusts in the U.S. with assets in excess of $20 billion dollars. Jay also became experienced in trust and estate work while a Donovan and has continued to practice in that area ever since.
In 1994, Jay and a group of attorneys left Donovan and joined the Chicago-based firm of Sidley & Austin where he continued to serve Hearst, members of the J. Paul Getty family and other clients large, medium and small, who sought his services to effectively manage a wide array of legal projects involving transactions, development and the specific individual needs of his clients.
In 1997, Jay along with several professionals from the acute care industry purchased the first of what became a small chain of assisted living facilities in Southern California with more than 350 beds. This venture exposed Jay to the rigors and problems associated with the ownership and operation of such facilities. After the facilities were sold off in 2005, Jay continued to serve the legal needs owners and operators as clients and to share his insights and solutions to the problems they faced.
Following the destruction of the Sidley New York office in the 9/11 World Trade center attack, Jay sought an opportunity to move his practice closer to his home and family in the Los Angeles suburbs. He formed Rockey & Wahl LLP in Westlake Village, California. This allowed him to serve his smaller clients who needed cost-effective legal services not fully provided in the large firm setting. Jay was able to cut his hourly rate in half, and keep virtually all of his former Sidley clients. Jay also cut his daily commute time by three hours.
In 2015, Jay formed Jay Rockey, a professional corporation, at which he continues to serve those same clients in the real estate, business and health care industries as well as individuals needing estate planning services. While Jay is a sole practitioner, he has dozens of great resources in the in and out of the legal field to assist his clients in areas of practice other than his fields of real estate, business, health care and trusts and estates. Jay has many resources outside of the legal field to help clients with matters involving accounting, tax, Medicaid qualification, 1031 exchanges, brokerage services, insurance, and many other fields.
Jay has two grown daughters and a Golden Retriever named Riley. Jay is an avid swimmer and enjoys hiking, biking, difficult work outs and travel.
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I know that finding the right attorney to represent you is a choice not to be taken lightly. That’s why I offer free consultations to walk you through your needs, the scope of your goals, and your budget.