The Salomon Bros. scandal has brought unaccustomed attention to the small, snooty and deservedly prestigious Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson.

Billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, now directing repairs at the wounded Wall Street firm, announced Sunday that he had recruited Robert Denham as the new general counsel for Salomon. Denham has been managing partner of Munger Tolles, founded in 1962 by seven lawyers, including current U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills. But the founder whose influence still shapes the firm, though decades ago he left active law practice for investing, is Charles T. Munger, Buffett's longtime personal friend and primary business partner.

Indeed, Munger Tolles, a firm better known in legal than public circles, considers itself to be driven by the same sort of homely, roll-up-the-sleeves standards that Buffett has come to characterize. In an age when many law firms lure clients with marketing and public-relations campaigns, Munger Tolles still takes a simpler path.

"Charlie's philosophy," says partner Allen Katz of Munger's original concept, "was that the best way to get new business was to worry about the work on your desk."

"They are just an exceptionally fine law firm," agrees Michael R. Mitchell, a securities lawyer, former chair of the California State Bar ethics committee and frequent opponent of the firm in court.

"In the quality of work they do, they are the best in town," Mitchell says.

That work has been diverse and at the quiet center of many highly public controversies:

* Partner Ronald L. Olson, frequently called one of California's best "rainmakers," or generators of legal business, is chair of the American Bar Assn. committee reviewing the fitness of Clarence Thomas to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

* John Spiegel, another partner, was lead attorney for the Christopher Commission study of the Los Angeles Police Department.

* The firm represented the Philippine government in its efforts to recover funds from Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos.

* Another big client is Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. and its member oil companies (except Exxon Corp.) in the civil suits stemming from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

* The firm has been lead counsel in the restructuring of Vons Cos., a grocery chain, over the past few years.

* Household-name clients for which it has also done substantial work include Northrop Corp., Litton Industries, Southern California Edison, Bank of America, Unocal Corp. and MCA Inc.