Nine-agent Compass team bolts for The Agency

Adam Rosenfeld’s jump is latest salvo in ongoing L.A. brokerage war

Nine-agent Compass team bolts for The Agency
Adam Rosenfeld, left, and Jon Grauman (The Agency and Jon Grauman)

The Agency has scored a victory in its ongoing battle with rival firm Compass.

The rapidly expanding Beverly Hills-based brokerage announced Monday that it has hired Los Angeles broker Adam Rosenfeld and his eight-agent team away from Compass, the New York-based firm that has been aggressively building out its own L.A. operations since 2015.

News of the transfer was first reported by Inman.

Rosenfeld specializes in “legacy estates and large-scale development,” according to a statement from The Agency, and has notched more than $1 billion in sales. Rosenfeld will be partnered with The Agency’s Jon Grauman, and together the new team will expand into markets including the Bay Area, Orange County and Miami, the firm said.

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The move is just the latest salvo in what has become one of the industry’s liveliest brokerage rivalries.

Last October, The Agency hired Rainy Hake Austin, a Compass West Coast executive, as its new president; Austin subsequently tried to recruit former colleagues, only to run afoul Compass’ strict non-solicitation provisions, prompting The Agency to file a federal lawsuit this spring.

In recent years Compass has also hired numerous brokers away from The Agency; in a 2017 interview with The Real Deal, Mauricio Umansky, founder of The Agency, called Compass’ poaching “absolutely horrendous and disgusting,” while maintaining that The Agency had “never ever recruited or poached an agent.”

[Inman] — Trevor Bach