Cravath, Swaine & Moore

Template:Infobox law firm

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (known as Cravath) is an American law firm based in New York City, with an additional office in London. Cravath was founded in 1819 and ranks second among the most prestigious law firms in the United States.^{[1] [2]}

History

The firm arose from two predecessor firms, led by Richard M. Blatchford in New York City, and William H. Seward in Auburn, New York, respectively.^[3] In 1854, these firms merged to form the firm of Blatchford, Seward & Griswold. Named partner Samuel Blatchford had been appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1822 by President Chester Arthur, and served for 11 years until his death. Named partner Seward later served as both Governor and then Senator from New York. As Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, Seward kept Britain and France from intervening during the Civil War by threatening war,^[4] supported the 1865 passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, and in 1867, under Andrew Johnson, he negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in a transaction contemporaries derisively called "Seward's Folly." Paul Drennan Cravath, who joined the firm in 1899, developed and instituted the "Cravath System", which combines a distinctive way of approaching the hiring, training and compensation of lawyers. In 1944, after a series of name changes, the name Cravath, Swaine & Moore was established and has not been altered since.

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.^[5]

Rankings

Cravath was ranked #2 in the 2013 Vault law firm "overall rankings." The firm consistently ranks within the top 3 on numerous Vault.com specialty rankings, including Antitrust, Corporate, Litigation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities and Tax.^[6] 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.^[2]

In 2014, Cravath was ranked sixth in The American Lawyer's annual listing of highest profits per partner.^[7][8]

Hiring

The firm is known for focusing its hiring on associates straight from law school; lateral hires are rare at any level. In 2005, Cravath hired Andrew W. Needham, formerly a tax partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher,^[9] 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. 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.^[10] In 2011, Cravath hired Christine A. Varney, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division for the Obama Administration. In 2013, the firm hired David Kappos, who served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.^[11]

Notable 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 T. Elfvin, federal judge nominated by President Ford
• Katherine B. Forrest, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• John Gleeson, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• James Clark McReynolds, United States Attorney General; Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, nominated by President Wilson
• Elijah Miller, judge in Auburn, New York; Auburn firm named partner with Seward from 1823
• Elizabeth S. Stong, bankruptcy judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York

Government service

• Carol Bellamy, Director of the Peace Corps; New York State Senator; President of New York City Council
• Richard M. Blatchford, Minister Resident to the States of the Church in Rome, Italy in the Lincoln administration^[12]; early Whig Party member^[13]
• Raynal C. Bolling, U.S. Army Colonel in World War I, first high-ranking officer killed in that war
• Richard C. Breeden, activist hedge fund manager and former United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
• Valerie E. Caproni, Federal Bureau of Investigation General Counsel
• Joseph P. Cotton, Jr., 8th Under Secretary of State in Hoover administration
• Kenneth W. 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
• Seymour P. Gilbert, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in Wilson and Harding administrations
• Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1961–1964; Chairman, Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation, 1964^[14]
• H. Struve Hensel, General Counsel in Departments of Navy and Defense 1941-1955; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in Eisenhower administration
• David Kappos, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Roswell Magill, Treasury Department official
• Timothy G. Massad, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; former Assistant Secretary of the of the Office of Financial Stability
• Carlyle E. Maw, Legal Adviser of the Department of State in Nixon administration
• John J. McCloy, former Assistant Secretary of War, former president of the World Bank, former adviser to several U.S. presidents
• Alfred McCormack, Director of Intelligence of the Military Intelligence Service and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State
• G. William Miller, Chair of the Federal Reserve 1978-1979; United States Secretary of the Treasury 1979-1981
• Christopher Morgan, U.S. Representative from New York
• Basil O'Connor, head of the March of Dimes
• John Porter, New York State Senator 1843-1846
• Howard C. Petersen, Assistant Secretary of War under President Truman; Special Assistant for International Trade Policy under President Kennedy
• Richard R. Rogers, Military Governor of Panama Canal Zone under President Theodore Roosevelt
• Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., New York City Corporation Counsel
• Clarence A. Seward, briefly Assistant Secretary of State for Andrew Johnson administration; later Judge Advocate for New York State
• William Seward, former U.S. Senator and Governor of New York, and U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
• Christine A. Varney, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division for the Obama Administration and Federal Trade Commissioner for the Clinton Administration
• John W. White, former SEC Director of Corporation Finance
• Dick Zimmer, former Representative for New Jersey's 12th congressional district and 2008 candidate for U.S. Senate

Business

• Frederick S. Beebe, Chairman of The Washington Post Co. and Newsweek
• Kevin Buehler, Director at McKinsey & Company
• Maxwell Evarts, railroad executive for Southern Pacific et al
• John P. Fishwick, railroad executive for Norfolk & Western
• Walker D. Hines, railroad executive and second Director General of the United States Railroad Administration in Wilson administration
• Robert A. Kindler, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley
• Russell C. Leffingwell, Chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co.
• Adebayo Ogunlesi, Chairman and Managing Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners
• Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner
• Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman of Lazard
• Devin Wenig, CEO-designate of eBay^[15]

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
• Paul D. Cravath, corporate lawyer, Cravath firm name partner, presiding partner 1906-1940, pioneer of the Cravath System
• Lloyd Cutler, founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
• William D. Guthrie, business consolidation and reorganization lawyer, initiated and directed litigation and appeal in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
• Robert D. Joffe, antitrust and corporate law expert, key figure behind the AOL-Time Warner merger
• Hoyt A. Moore, Cravath firm name partner, presiding partner 1949-1957
• Victor Morawetz, author of the first book on modern law, The Law of Private Corporations (1882)^[16][17]
• John H. Pickering, founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
• John B. Quinn, founding partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
• Robert T. Swaine, Cravath firm name partner, presiding partner 1940-1949; author of The Cravath Firm and It’s Predecessors: 1819-1947, two volumes

Academia

• Anita L. Allen, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Vice Provost for Faculty and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, and member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
• Aditi Bagchi, professor at Fordham University School of Law
• 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
• 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^[18]
• Charles A. Reich, former Yale Law School professor
• Dana Remus, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law
• Eugene V. Rostow, Dean of Yale Law School; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson
• 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
• William H. Widen, professor at the University of Miami School of Law, contracts law

Publishing and cinema

• Thomas Hauser, author
• Carrie Kei Heim, writer, attorney and former child actress
• Alan J. Hruska, writer, director, and producer in film, theater, and fiction ^[19]
• Gerald Posner, journalist
• James B. Stewart, journalist and author

References

Further reading

• Swaine, Robert T. (2007).The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors: 1819-1947. Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange.
• Stewart, James A Law Firm Where Money Seemed Secondary, New York Times
• Handwritten papers by, and other collection titles mentioning Richard M. Blatchford, from the 1860s,

External links

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