Kaye Scholer

Last updated
Kaye Scholer
Kaye Scholer 2013 Logo.jpg
Headquarters250 West 55th Street, New York, NY
No. of offices9
No. of attorneys450+
Major practice areasGeneral practice
Revenue$370 million (2015) [1]
Profit per equity partner$1.38 million (2015) [1]
Date founded1917 (New York City)
Founder Benjamin Kaye
Jacob Scholer
Company type Limited liability partnership
Dissolved2017
Website www.arnoldporter.com

Kaye Scholer was a law firm founded in 1917 by Benjamin Kaye and Jacob Scholer. The firm had more than 450 attorneys in nine offices located in the cities of Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York City (headquarters), Shanghai, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., and West Palm Beach. [2]

Contents

In late 2016, Kaye Scholer voted to merge with Washington D.C.-based law firm Arnold & Porter to create a $1 billion+ sized multinational firm with a large offering both in the US and internationally. The merger was effected on January 1, 2017, as Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, later modified to operating as Arnold & Porter, in February 2018.

History

The firm was founded in 1917 in New York by Benjamin Kaye and Jacob Scholer. Scholer was a graduate of New York Law School. Kaye was a graduate of Columbia Law School and an eminent banking lawyer who was among the first lawyers to bring a federal income tax case to trial under the 1913 income tax law. Kaye was also a noted playwright who wrote plays between tax cases. The firm was known as Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler for many years.

In 1958 the firm moved into brand new offices at 425 Park Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets. This becomes the firm's New York headquarters for the next 55 years, [3] making it one of the longest business tenants at one locale in the city's history. In fall 2014, the firm left 425 Park Avenue and moved its New York headquarters to 250 West 55th Street. [4]

Kaye Scholer launched an office in Washington, D.C. in 1980 that now employs approximately 50 attorneys.

Charges brought by the Office of Thrift Supervision against the firm in 1992 related to its representation of Charles Keating and his bank, Lincoln Savings and Loan, generated one of the most prominent legal ethics controversies of the decade. [5]

Kaye Scholer opened an office in West Palm Beach in 1997, where it focuses on real estate and estate planning law.

Former US Senator Abraham Ribicoff joined Kaye Scholer as senior counsel in 1981. Ribicoff had previously sponsored the bill that opened up trade between the US and China. As a result of his influence, Kaye Scholer was able to further expand into the Asian market, becoming the first New York-based firm to open a Shanghai office in 1998. [6] [7]

In 2001, Kaye Scholer opened offices in London and Chicago; the firm's Frankfurt office opened soon after, in 2002. In 2010, the firm opened its ninth office in Palo Alto, offering a full range of legal services to technology companies and private investment firms in Silicon Valley and Northern California. [8]

Following the merger of London-based Clifford Chance and legacy firm Rogers & Wells, Kaye Scholer benefited from a series of key lateral partners in intellectual property and bankruptcy. [9] [10]

In November 2016, Kaye Scholer announced that it would be merging with Washington, D.C.-based firm Arnold & Porter LLP to form Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, with approximately 1000 attorneys across nine domestic and four international offices. The merger took effect on January 1, 2017. [11] In February 2018, The National Law Journal reported that the newly combined "firm has quietly reversed its post-merger branding efforts" and "scrubbed nearly all mention of ”Kaye Scholer” from its public image, changing its brand name, email addresses and web domain", while retaining the legal entity name in full. [12]

Reputation and recognition

Kaye Scholer was internationally known for being a leading litigation firm. Its particular areas of litigation strength include antitrust, intellectual property, and products liability. In 2008, Kaye Scholer was named Product Liability Firm of the Year by Chambers and Partners. [13] In 2005, 2006 and 2007, The National Law Journal named Kaye Scholer to its list of top 10 elite litigation defense firms, making Kaye Scholer the only law firm to appear on this list for the three years it had run. In 2006, The American Lawyer magazine selected Kaye Scholer as the products liability litigation firm of the year. [14] In 2013, Law360 selected Kaye Scholer's product liability practice as one of its Practice Groups of the Year. [15] Kaye Scholer was one of only five firms singled out for product liability by the publication. [16]

Kaye Scholer also had transactional practice, including those in aviation, bankruptcy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and real estate. [17]

In the life sciences arena, Kaye Scholer was recognized in 2010 as "one of the most well regarded firms" for life sciences by The International Who's Who of Life Sciences Lawyers 2010. On September 10, 2009, at an awards ceremony in Basel, Switzerland, capping Novartis AG's Global Legal Meeting, Kaye Scholer received the company's first-ever Preferred Provider Award for Excellence. [18]

Kaye Scholer was one of the nation's most profitable large law firms, according to American Lawyer magazine. Kaye Scholer maintains a reputation [19] for being a collegial firm, something of a rarity in law firms of its size and economic success.

Noted alumni

Among Kaye Scholer's alumni are Judges Denise Cote and Analisa Torres [20] of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; the late former Senator Abraham Ribicoff; Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master of the U.S. Government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund; and the late Milton Handler, a Columbia Law professor and antitrust expert who drafted laws that include the first Food and Drug Act, the National Labor Relations Act and the GI Bill of Rights. [21]

Related Research Articles

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm. It is a white-shoe firm and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, formerly Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly & Cox and Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly, Steen & Hamilton, is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is an American white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 1,000 attorneys throughout 35 offices around the world.

Bracewell LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has approximately 350 lawyers, and has United States offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas and Austin, as well as offices in Dubai, Paris and London.

Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. It was established in 1866 and its headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. It is one of the largest law firms in the world in terms of revenue. Among its alumni are former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olswang</span> Law firm

Olswang was an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and with additional offices in Reading, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Singapore and, since 2011, Munich. It worked closely with a network of firms across eighty countries. The Lawyer ranked the firm 22nd largest in the UK by worldwide turnover in 2010. That year, the firm had over 600 staff, including 97 partners. David Stewart was the firm's chief executive. On 1 May 2017, Olswang merged with CMS Cameron McKenna and Nabarro to form CMS Nabarro Olswang LLP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howrey</span>

Howrey LLP was a global law firm that practiced antitrust, global litigation and intellectual property law. At its peak Howrey had more than 700 attorneys in 17 locations worldwide.

Ashurst is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London. It has 27 offices in 15 countries apart from the United Kingdom, across Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, and employs around 1,600 legal advisers. Ashurst is 55th in the list of 100 largest law firms in the world by revenue, and 8th in the list of largest UK law firms by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winston & Strawn</span> American law firm

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Chicago. It has more than 900 attorneys spread across ten offices in the United States and six offices in Europe, Asia and South America. Founded in 1853, it is one of the largest and oldest law firms in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saul Ewing</span> United States-based law firm

Saul Ewing LLP is a U.S.-based law firm with 18 offices and approximately 425 attorneys providing a broad range of legal services. Its offices are located along the East Coast from Boston to Miami and extend into the Midwest by way of Chicago. On September 1, 2017 Saul Ewing LLP and Arnstein & Lehr LLP merged to form Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP. In November 2022, the firm changed its name back to Saul Ewing LLP as part of a rebrand effort. On August 1, 2023, the firm merged with Los Angeles based Freeman Freeman & Smiley.

Reed Smith LLP is a global law firm with more than 1,500 lawyers in 30 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Crowell & Moring is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Chicago, Denver, London, Brussels, Doha, and Shanghai. With approximately 600 lawyers, the firm advises multinational corporations on regulatory, litigation, corporate, and investigations matters. As of 2022, Crowell & Moring is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the United States in The American Lawyer's "AmLaw 100" list, based on gross revenue.

Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP is a full service law firm with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. The number of attorneys practicing at the firm globally is approximately 320 as of 2020, down from approximately 375 attorneys in 2013.

Riker Danzig LLP is a law firm in the state of New Jersey. Founded in 1882, it is among the state's oldest firms. The firm is based in Morristown, New Jersey and also has offices in Trenton, New Jersey, and New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quarles & Brady</span> United States law firm

Quarles & Brady LLP is a U.S. law firm with thirteen offices nationwide. According to the National Law Journal's 2012 rankings, it is the 107th largest law firm in the United States, and the second-largest firm in the state of Wisconsin. The firm also ranked 184th in profit per attorney on the 2010 AmLaw 200 survey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith</span> American law firm based in Los Angeles

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP is a U.S. law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1979, the firm is a national, general practice law firm with 1,552 attorneys. The firm operates offices in 55 offices in 32 states and Washington, D.C.

Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman LLP was a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, itself a product of the merger between D.C. law firm Swidler & Berlin and New York City's Shereff, Friedman, Hoffman & Goodman LLP in 1998. The firm merged with Bingham McCutchen in 2006. At its height in 2005, Swidler Berlin employed some 300 attorneys with offices on D.C. K Street lobbying corridor and in New York City's iconic Chrysler Building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani</span> American law firm

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP, commonly referred to as GRSM, is an AmLaw 100 law firm based in the United States, with more than 1,200 lawyers practicing in all 50 states.

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm has twenty-two offices, including U.S. offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, and has presence via international offices in Japan, Beijing, Shanghai, and Sweden. The firm is particularly known for its intellectual property practice. Clients have included Google in litigation related to its Google Print product, and Sony in its suit against 21-year-old hacker George Hotz for jailbreaking the PS3.

Buckley LLP was a financial services, criminal, and civil enforcement defense law firm which had 160 lawyers scattered across different parts of the United States of America; in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and in London. As of February 1, 2023, Buckley merged with global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

References

  1. 1 2 Meyer, Dani (March 16, 2016). "Squire Patton Boggs, Kaye Scholer Revenue Figures Revealed". Law360.
  2. "Kaye Scholer LLP". U.S. News. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  3. Amon, Elizabeth. "Goodwin Procter, Kaye Scholer to Move Offices: Business of Law". Bloomberg.
  4. Delaporte, Gus (2 April 2013). "Boston Legal: Andrew Levin On 250 West 55th Street". Commercial Observer.
  5. William H. Simon, "The Kaye Scholer Affair: The Lawyer's Duty of Candor and the Bar's Temptations of Evasion and Apology" (2006) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4469.1998.tb00705.x/abstract
  6. "Chambers Asia 2012 - Kaye Scholer LLP".
  7. The Lawyer, 'NYC firm first to Shanghai,' (1998) http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=95588 Archived 2012-09-13 at archive.today
  8. Lee, Kevin. "Former Kaye Scholer Leader Heads to Greenberg Traurig". The Daily Journal. Archived from the original on 2011-04-23. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  9. The Lawyer, 'Clifford Chance New York rainmaker quits for Kaye' (2003)
  10. The Lawyer, 'CC hit for six by Kaye Scholer NY raid' (2005) http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=114093 Archived 2012-09-19 at archive.today
  11. "Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer Announce Combination". Arnold & Porter. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  12. "Arnold & Porter Scrubs Kaye Scholer From Masthead, Website", by Ryan Lovelace, The National Law Journal, Law.com, February 02, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  13. "Chambers USA Awards for Excellence 2008: The Winners" (PDF). Chambers and Partners.
  14. Press, Aric. "Litigation Department of the Year" . Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  15. Shrestha, Bibeka. "Product Liability Group of the Year: Kaye Scholer". Law360.
  16. Simpson, Jake. "Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year". Law360.
  17. "Chambers USA 2012: Kaye Scholer LLP". Chambers and Partners.
  18. "Kaye Scholer Chosen for Novartis's Inaugural Preferred Provider Award for Excellence". Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  19. "Chambers Associate Law Firm Profile - Kaye Scholer LLP". Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  20. "Analisa Torres Senate Questionnaire" (PDF).
  21. Nasar, Sylvia (12 November 1998). "Milton Handler, 95, Is Dead; Antitrust Expert Wrote Laws". The New York Times.