Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (known as Akin Gump or Akin) is an American multinationallaw firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is the second-largest lobbying firm in the United States by revenue.[5]
The firm was founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1945 by Robert Strauss and Richard Gump. It maintains a large presence in Texas with five offices in the state.[6]
In early September 1950, Strauss and Gump added Irving Goldberg and William P. Fonville to the firm, which was then renamed Goldberg, Fonville, Gump & Strauss.[7]
In 1963, Jack Hauer left a competitor to join the firm, which became known as Goldberg, Fonville, Gump, Strauss & Hauer.[7]
Goldberg left the firm in 1966 to accept a federal judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was replaced by Henry Akin. Fonville's departure—and the ascent to named partner status of Alan Feld, who had joined the firm in 1960—gave the firm the name it currently bears.[7]
In 2012, the firm's partnership elected Kim Koopersmith to serve as its chairperson, joining the few women up to that time to head an Am Law 50 law firm.[8] She succeeded R. Bruce McLean, who had helmed the firm for 20 years and is the first woman to chair the firm.[9]
In 2013, Akin adopted a "single tier" partnership structure, in which all partners have equity, abandoning the more popular "two tier" structure in which many partners have no equity interest.[10]
In 2017, Akin hired its first chief diversity and inclusion officer, Michele Meyer-Shipp, who joined the firm from Prudential Financial. She was succeeded by Nimesh Patel, who joined the firm in February 2019.[11]
According to OpenSecrets, Akin was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats.[12] By comparison, during that same period Kirkland & Ellis donated $2.49 million, 59% to Republicans,[12] while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans.[13] Since 1990, Akin has contributed $19.84 million to federal candidates, and since 2003 has spent $8 million on lobbying.[14]
The firm's clients includes the governments of Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the Maldives, and Nicaragua.[15][16]
In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter said "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."[19]
Involvement in Russia investigation
Paul Manafort, a central figure in the 2017 Special Counsel investigation, was being represented by Melissa Laurenza, a partner of the firm.[20] Melissa Laurenza's role in the Russian investigation centers from her representation of Manafort. The United States Office of Special Counsel compelled Melissa Laurenza to testify in the case. In October 2017, "New York University law professor Stephen Gillers said the judge was persuaded that there was significant evidence Manafort and Gates had duped their lawyer into sending inaccurate letters to Justice about their lobbying efforts and about what emails might exist about the work."
Involvement in U.S. presidential impeachment inquiry
In 2020, for the sixth time in seven years,[22] the firm was named to the A-List by The American Lawyer in its annual ranking of the country's 20 leading law firms.[23] In 2017, the firm marked its 15th appearance on Corporate Board Member's list of the nation's top 20 corporate law firms.[24] In 2019, for the 11th year out of the last 12, Akin was named to The National Law Journal's "Appellate Hot List"[25] of firms that "[won] big in federal and state appeals courts across the country."
Yale Law Women, the largest student organization at Yale Law School, named Akin to its 2019 list of Top 10 Firms for Family Friendliness[26] and, in 2020, as one of only three law firms to its list of Top Firms for Working Mothers and Family Planning.[27] In October 2017, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association presented Akin with the Thomas L. Sager Award in recognition of the firm's "sustained commitment to improving the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys". (The firm won the award four times previously.)[28] In 2019, for the 12th year in a row, Akin received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which rates employers on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.[29]
Chambers & Partners ranks the firm as top tier in 11 areas of practice around the globe including in bankruptcy/restructuring/insolvency, capital markets: debt, government relations, healthcare and Native American law.[2]
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm comprises approximately 1,700 lawyers and is the fifth highest grossing law firm worldwide.
Holland & Knight LLP is a multinational law firm with nearly 2000 attorneys and professional staff worldwide. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the firm has a number of different practices areas, including litigation, corporate law, real estate, construction law, and intellectual property.
Robert Schwarz Strauss was an influential figure in American politics, diplomacy, and law whose service dated back to future President Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he was associated in Texas politics with the faction of the Democratic Party that was led by Johnson and John Connally. He served as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1972 and 1977 and served under President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Trade Representative and special envoy to the Middle East. He later served as the Ambassador to Russia under President George H.W. Bush. Strauss also served as the last United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Landmark is a commercial complex owned by Hongkong Land in Central, Hong Kong. It consists of three office towers: Gloucester Tower, Edinburgh Tower and York House. Its retail podium, Landmark Atrium, forms the core component of the LANDMARK shopping mall.
Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law and lobbying firm founded in Miami in 1967 by Mel Greenberg, Larry J. Hoffman, and Robert H. Traurig.
Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with over 40 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C.–based Patton Boggs. It is one of the largest law firms in the world by total headcount and gross revenue, twelfth largest firm in the UK by revenue, and one of the top 12 by number of countries occupied.
K&L Gates LLP is an American multinational corporation law firm based in the United States, with international offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the firm was formed in 2007 by the merger of the Pittsburgh-based law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and the Seattle-based law firm Preston Gates & Ellis.
Ruth Harkin is an American attorney who served as county attorney of Story County, Iowa, one of the first female prosecutors elected in the United States.
Dario J. Frommer is an American politician. He is a former member of the California State Assembly for the 43rd district who served from 2000 until 2006. He served as Majority Leader from 2004 until 2006. Frommer also served as Chair of the Health Committee. He is now a partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles.
Alston & Bird LLP is an American multinational law firm with over 800 lawyers in 13 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the UK, and Asia. The firm provides legal services to both domestic and international clients who conduct business worldwide. Alston & Bird has advised companies including Amazon.com, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Bank of America, Starbucks, Toyota, Dell, UPS, and Nokia. Since 2000, Fortune has ranked the firm in the 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The firm's core practices include intellectual property, complex litigation, corporate and tax, with national industry focusing on energy and sustainability, health care, financial services, and public policy.
Steven F. Reich is an American attorney who currently serves as 3M Company’s Executive Vice President & Chief Counsel, Enterprise Risk Management. Reich joined 3M in 2022 after nearly seven years at Deutsche Bank AG. At Deutsche Bank, Reich served as General Counsel for the Americas and then as CEO of the Bank’s main regulated entity in the US, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. From 2011 to 2013, he served as associate deputy attorney general in the United States Department of Justice.
Charles William 'Bill' Frick is an American politician from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. From 2007 to 2018, he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 16, which includes parts of Bethesda, Friendship Heights, and Somerset.
Kevin W. Parke is an American lawyer and business executive. He is best known as President of the Todd Wagner Foundation.
Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2015, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis.
Irving Loeb Goldberg was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The Saudi Arabia lobby in the United States is a collection of lawyers, public relation firms and professional lobbyists paid directly by the government of Saudi Arabia to lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of the interests of the government of Saudi Arabia.
Pratik A. Shah is an American lawyer and current co-head of Akin Gump's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice. A graduate of Princeton University with highest honors in chemical engineering, and University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Boalt Hall, Shah clerked for Judge William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2003 Term. Before joining Akin Gump, Shah argued 13 cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as an assistant to the Solicitor General, including United States v. Windsor, which made it unconstitutional to withhold federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal.
Frank White is an American attorney and politician who served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016 until 2018. He represented southern Escambia County, including the city of Pensacola.
Brian Pomper is an American lawyer, political strategist and lobbyist and currently serves as partner with Akin Gump Strauss & Feld. He is regarded an expert on international trade and intellectual property rights.
↑ Vogel, Kenneth P.; Goldstein, Matthew (February 24, 2018). "How Skadden, the Giant Law Firm, Got Entangled in the Mueller Investigation". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2018. Among those reaping windfalls are large international law firms like the Washington-based Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which represents the governments of Japan, the Maldives, Nicaragua and South Korea, among others.
↑ Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; Merced, Michael J. de la; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (2 November 2023). "Law Firms Warn Universities About Antisemitism on Campus". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
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