The firm was founded in 1931 by Eli Whitney Debevoise, a descendant of Eli Whitney, and William E. Stevenson, a gold medalist in the 1924 Summer Olympics.[5] Both men had previously worked together at Davis Polk & Wardwell.[5]Francis T. P. Plimpton soon joined the firm's masthead in 1933.[6] In 1936, Robert G. Page joined the firm, which was then known as Debevoise, Stevenson, Plimpton & Page.[7] The firm later became Debevoise, Plimpton & McLean after the addition of Edward C. McLean.[8] By the 1970s, the firm was named Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates after partners Marvin Lyons and Samuel E. Gates.[9][10] The firm's name was eventually shortened to Debevoise & Plimpton in the 1980s.[11]
Debevoise rose to prominence as counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings of Ivar Kreuger's business empire in the 1930s.[5] In the 1950s, the firm defended Alger Hiss, a U.S. government official controversially accused of espionage, in two highly publicized perjury trials.[12] Soon after, the firm represented Ford Motor Co. in its transition to a public corporation.[13]
Debevoise's reputation grew with the success of its partners outside of the firm. Page became president of Phelps Dodge in 1947.[7] Eli Whitney Debevoise, who remained the firm's presiding partner until 1972, also served as the Allied Commission's Deputy United States High Commissioner for Germany from 1951 to 1953.[5] Stevenson was president of Oberlin College from 1946 to 1960, and later President John F. Kennedy appointed him as the Ambassador to the Philippines in 1961.[14] President Kennedy also appointed Plimpton as the deputy United States Representative to the United Nations, a role he held from 1961 to 1966.[11] McLean served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1962 until his death in 1972.[15]
In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Debevoise & Plimpton 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."[17]
Reputation and rankings
Debevoise & Plimpton is ranked No. 9 on The American Lawyer's 2022 A-List;[18] and No. 18 on Vault's 2024 Rankings of the most prestigious law firms.[19] It is consistently among the most profitable large law firms in the world on a per-partner and per-lawyer basis according to American Lawyer magazine's annual AmLaw 100 Survey. Debevoise was placed overall No. 1 in The American Lawyer's "10-Year A-List," a ranking of the law firms who have earned the highest cumulative score on the A-List since its inception in 2003. The annual A-List ranks firms according to their performance in four categories: revenue per lawyer, pro bono service, associate satisfaction, and diversity.[20]
Debevoise is notable as one of the last major law firms known to use a lockstep seniority-based compensation system.[21] In June 2025, Debevoise & Plimpton introduced a non-equity partner tier, ending its tradition as a single-tier partnership. The move aligned the firm with most of its U.S. peers, where non-equity partners now make up nearly half of all partners across the Am Law 200.[22]
Controversial cases
Representation of the family that controls Purdue Pharma
Debevoise represented four members of the Sackler family, which controls Purdue Pharma, the company that developed and marketed the painkiller Oxycontin.[23] Purdue, along with other opioid makers, faced over 2,000 suits in 2019 by state, city, and county officials who blame prescription opiates for the death of thousands of Americans in the opioid epidemic.[23] For its legal work amid the opioid scandal, Purdue Pharma paid Debevoise the majority of its legal spend: more than $11.4 million out of a total of more than $17.5 million.[24]
Assistance to Guantanamo prisoners
Attorneys from Debevoise & Plimpton worked on behalf of prisoners held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[25][26][27] Jeff Lang, of Debevoise & Plimpton, was one of the first Guantanamo Bay attorneys to file an appeal in the Federal appeal court in Washington DC of prisoners' Combatant Status Review Tribunal proceedings. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 included provision for prisoners to challenge whether the Tribunals' decisions complied with the Tribunal's mandate. Charles "Cully" Stimson, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, stirred controversy when he went on record criticizing the patriotism of law firms that allowed employees to assist Guantanamo prisoners: "corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists."[28] Stimson's views were widely criticized. The Pentagon disavowed them, and Stimson resigned shortly thereafter.
↑ Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; de la Merced, Michael J.; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (November 2, 2023). "Law Firms Warn Universities About Antisemitism on Campus". The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
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$1.329 billion (2022) [1] 
