Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
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| Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP | |
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| Headquarters |  New York City |
|---|---|
| No. of Offices | 12 |
| No. of Attorneys | 900+ |
| Major Practice Areas | General practice |
| Key People | Mark Walker, Managing Partner |
| Revenue |  $890 million (2007) |
| Date Founded | 1946 |
| Company Type | Limited liability partnership |
| Website | www.cgsh.com |
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is an international law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. The firm currently has offices in Washington DC, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Rome, Milan, Brussels, Moscow, Frankfurt, Cologne and Paris. It employs over 900 lawyers worldwide, with its largest office being located in New York. Cleary's international practice is world renowned. Among its accomplishments, it was the first U.S. firm qualified to practice law in Japan, and has represented governments throughout Latin America. Ironically, Cleary became one of the first foreign firms to leave the Japanese market while it opened its first Chinese office in Beijing. [1]
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[edit] History
The firm was founded in 1946 when six partners - including Henry Friendly - from the firm of Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland (which became Dewey Ballantine in the 1950s and which is now Dewey & LeBoeuf) left Root, Clark to found a firm which they initially called "Cleary, Friendly, Gottlieb & Steen." Friendly's name was removed from the firm's name after he was appointed as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1959.
[edit] Offices
The New York office is situated on the 34th-45th floors of One Liberty Plaza, across the street from the World Trade Center site. Several members of the firm sit on the advisory committee for the development of that site. The 39th floor in particular boasts several conference rooms that afford spectacular views of fireworks, and cruise ships entering and departing from New York's harbor.
Beijing (2006)
Brussels
Cologne (2004)- Frankfurt (1991)
Hong Kong (1980)
London (1971)
Milan
Moscow (1991)- New York (1946)
Paris- Rome
- Washington, D.C. (1946)
[edit] Awards
The firm is consistently rated as one of the top ten most prestigious law firms by Vault.com. Chambers and Partners gives the firm high marks in the following practice areas: Corporate, Litigation, M&A, Private Equity, Antitrust, Capital Markets, Employee Benefits, Real Estate, and Income Tax.
On October 10, 2007, Cleary Gottlieb was included in a ranking of law firms by the national law student group Building a Better Legal Profession.[2] [3] The organization ranked firms by billable hours, demographic diversity, and pro bono participation. The results can be found on the organization's website, http://www.betterlegalprofession.org.[4] Cleary scored the highest overall in the New York market for demographic diversity.
[edit] Notable Mandates
- Issuer counsel to the Government of Malaysia in its $750 million eurobond offering in 2002.
- Counseled Crédit Lyonnais in its €19.5 billion acquisition by Crédit Agricole SA in December 2002. The entity is now known as LCL (Le Crédit Lyonnais).
- In 2003, the firm advised Deutsche Telekom in its €2.3 billion bond offer.
- Advised Argentina in the 2005 restructuring of its $81.8 billion global debt.
- Retained as legal counsel by Euronext NV in its €15 billion merger of equals with the New York Stock Exchange in 2006.
- In 2007, Cleary Gottlieb served as legal adviser to T-Mobile in its $2.4 billion merger with SunCom Wireless.
- Defended the Republic of Congo in litigation in the United States arising from attempts to garnish Congo's oil royalties.
- Represented Mittal Steel Czech subsidiary in ICC arbitration claim brought by Dutch contractor.
[edit] Misconduct
On August 23, 2007, Cleary Gottlieb was found by Federal District Court judge Loretta A. Preska to have engaged in misconduct by acting in bad faith and attempting to interfere with the testimony of a witness.[5]
"through two of its attorneys, sought to interfere with the legitimate post-judgment discovery process [...] by attempting in bad faith in furtherance of its own interests to dissuade [a witness] from attending the properly noticed deposition"[6]
The firm was ordered to pay monetary damages, and the sanction was required to be circulated to every attorney at the firm.
[edit] References
- ^ The Lawyer Global 100 2006 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Profile http://www.thelawyer.com/global100/2006/clearygottliebsteen.html
- ^ Amir Efrati, You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution, Take II, "Wall Street Journal", October 10, 2007.
- ^ Adam Liptak, In Students’ Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don’t Make the Grade, New York Times, October 29, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/us/29bar.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=4b0cd84261ffe5b4&ei=5087%0A
- ^ Thomas Adcock and Zusha Elinson, Student Group Grades Firms On Diversity, Pro Bono Work, "New York Law Journal," October 19, 2007, http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?hubtype=BackPage&id=1192698212305
- ^ "Judge Sanctions Cleary: “Civil Litigation Is Not Always Civil”", WSJ.com, August 27, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ_LB_ClearyOpinion.pdf | page 30 | lines 1 - 4
