Cravath, Swaine & Moore

Template:Infobox law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (“Cravath”) is a prominent American law firm based in New York City, with an additional office in London. Cravath was founded in 1819 and consistently ranks first among the world's most prestigious law firms according to a survey of partners,^[1] and second among the world's most prestigious law firms according to a survey of associates.^[2] It is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world.

History

The firm arose from two predecessor firms, one in New York City and one in Auburn, New York. In 1854 these firms merged to form the firm of Blatchford, Seward & Griswold. Name partner Samuel Blatchford later served on the United States Supreme Court. Name partner William H. Seward later served as both governor of and a senator from New York, then became Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In 1867, he negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in a transaction contemporaries derisively called "Seward's Folly." Paul Drennan Cravath joined the firm in 1899. He instituted the "Cravath System". The system combines a distinctive way of approaching the hiring, training and compensation of lawyers. After a series of name changes, the Cravath, Swaine & Moore name was made permanent in 1944.

Cravath has represented high profile businesses, from United Airlines in its merger with Continental Airlines, the world's largest airline, to Unilever in its acquisition of Alberto Culver. In 2010, its litigation department won summary judgment for Morgan Stanley on its breach of contract claim against Discover Financial Services. In a subsequent settlement, Discover agreed to pay Morgan Stanley $775 million to resolve the litigation. In the same year they successfully represented Barnes & Noble in a landmark "poison pill" trial. Past clients ranged from Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph to corporations such as IBM, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and CBS. It also performed the legal work necessary to form NBC. More recent decades have seen Cravath represent Netscape in its antitrust suit against Microsoft, resulting in a $750 million settlement; major merger and acquisition deals, such as the DuPont-Conoco merger, the Ford-Jaguar merger, the Bristol-Myers-Squibb merger, the Time-Warner merger, and the AOL-Time-Warner merger; and two famed libel suits: defending Time Inc. against Israeli General Ariel Sharon, and also defending CBS against U.S. Army General William Westmoreland.

Unlike others, Cravath has remained relatively small. Its approximately 500 lawyers are located primarily in the New York Office, with just a few dozen in the London office, which opened in 1973. Cravath drew attention to its bankruptcy practice on November 10, 2010 by offering free representation in advance of a likely Chapter 9 filing for Harrisburg, PA.^[3]

Rankings

The firm consistently ranks at or near the top of various industry surveys, such as the Vault.com Partner (#1, 2009) and Associate (#2, 2009) prestige surveys. It consistently ranks within the top 3 on numerous Vault.com specialty rankings, including Antitrust, Corporate, Litigation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities and Tax.^[4] Chambers and Partners ranks Cravath in its top tier for Banking & Finance, Capital Markets (Debt & Equity), Corporate/M&A, Environmental, Media and Entertainment, Securities and General Commercial Litigation and Tax.^[5]

In 2010, Cravath was ranked fifth in The American Lawyer's annual listing of highest profits per partner.^[6]

Hiring

Entry to the firm is highly selective, generally open to only the most academically successful students from the most elite law schools in the United States and Canada.

The firm is known for focusing its hiring on associates straight from law school; lateral hires are rare at the associate level and new partners are almost never taken on. In 2005, Cravath hired Andrew W. Needham, formerly a tax partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher,^[7] as the first lateral partner since Herbert L. Camp, also a tax partner, from the now-defunct Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in 1987. Camp, however, had previously been a Cravath associate and is therefore not considered a true lateral because he started his career there. The last true lateral was Jeffrey A. Smith, who founded Cravath's environmental group, from now-defunct Clark, Ladner, Fortenbough & Young, and who has since, in a rare move, lateraled out of Cravath.^[8] Before that, Roswell Magill, a former Treasury Department official, became a Cravath tax partner in 1943. In 2007, the firm brought in Richard Levin from Skadden, Arps to boost its new bankruptcy practice.^[9]

Famous current and former employees

Judiciary

• Deborah Batts, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Samuel Blatchford, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• William O. Douglas, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• John Gleeson, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Elizabeth S. Stong, bankruptcy judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Katherine B. Forrest, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

Government service

• William Seward, former U.S. Senator and Governor of New York, and U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
• Richard C. Breeden, activist hedge fund manager and former United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
• Valerie Caproni, Federal Bureau of Investigation General Counsel
• Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary of Treasury, 2001–2003; Deputy Secretary of State, 1982–1985
• Patricia M. Geoghegan, Acting Special Master for Troubled Asset Relief Program Executive Compensation
• Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1961–1964; Chairman, Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation, 1964^[10]
• Roswell Magill, Treasury Department official
• Alfred McCormack, Director of Intelligence of the Military Intelligence Service and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State
• Timothy G. Massad, Acting Head of the Office of Financial Stability
• John J. McCloy, former Assistant Secretary of War, former president of the World Bank, former adviser to several U.S. presidents
• Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., New York City Corporation Counsel
• John White, SEC Director of Corporation Finance
• Dick Zimmer, former Representative for New Jersey's 12th congressional district and 2008 candidate for U.S. Senate
• Basil O'Connor, head of the March of Dimes
• Carol Bellamy, Director of the Peace Corps; NY State Senator; President of New York City Council

Business

• Robert A. Kindler, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley
• Adebayo Ogunlesi, Chairman and Managing Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners
• Adam Silver, NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO
• Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman of Lazard
• Ellen Pao, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Law

• Thomas D. Barr, litigator who represented IBM in a 13-year antitrust case
• David Boies, litigator who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, founding partner of Boies, Schiller & Flexner
• Bruce Bromley, famous litigator in the 1950s and 1960s
• James Colliton, convicted felon ^[11]
• Robert D. Joffe, antitrust and corporate law expert, key figure behind the AOL-Time Warner merger
• John H. Pickering, founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
• Lloyd Cutler, founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
• John B. Quinn, founding partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
• David Louis Schwartz ^[12]

Academia

• Aditi Bagchi, professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Jack Balkin, professor at Yale Law School
• Royce de rohan Barondes, professor at University of Missouri School of Law
• John S. Beckerman, Associate Dean at Rutgers Law School-Camden
• Thomas J. Brennan, professor at Northwestern University School of Law
• Lawrence A. Cunningham, professor at George Washington University Law School, editor of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America
• John C. Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School, securities law expert
• John L. Diamond, professor at University of California, Hastings, Torts law expert
• Gary Francione, animal rights theorist and professor at Rutgers Law School
• Wulf A. Kaal, professor at University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis)
• John Leitner, the youngest professor in the history of Seoul National University^[13]
• Charles A. Reich, former Yale Law School professor
• Catherine Struve, professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School, reporter to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules
• Suja A. Thomas, professor at the University of Illinois

Publishing and Cinema

• Thomas Hauser, author
• Gerald Posner, journalist
• James B. Stewart, journalist and author
• Carrie Kei Heim, writer, attorney and former child actress

References

Further reading

• Swaine, Robert T. (2007).The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors: 1819-1947. Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange.

External links

• Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP website
• Chambers and Partners Profile