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Headquarters | CBS Building New York City, New York, U.S. |
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No. of offices | 1 |
No. of attorneys | 265 [1] |
Major practice areas | General practice |
Revenue | US$1.13 billion (2023) [1] |
Profit per equity partner | US$8.51 million (2023) [1] |
Date founded | 1965 |
Founders | |
Company type | General partnership |
Website | www |
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (known as Wachtell Lipton or Wachtell) is an American white-shoe law firm in New York City. [2] While many peer law firms have grown and become international brands, Wachtell has only a single, Manhattan office. It is one of the smallest firms in the AmLaw 100, but has the highest per partner profits of any law firm and pays significantly above the "Cravath scale" market rate for associates. [3]
The firm was founded in 1965 by Herbert Wachtell and Jerry Kern, who were shortly afterwards joined by Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz [4] The four named partners met at New York University School of Law where they were editors on the New York University Law Review together. [5] The firm rose to prominence on Wall Street when many brokers and investment bankers were launching small firms, but received little attention from established white-shoe law firms, such as Sullivan & Cromwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. [4]
One of the founding partners, Martin Lipton, invented the so-called "poison pill defense" during the 1980s, to foil hostile takeovers. [4] Working both sides of mergers and acquisitions, Wachtell Lipton has represented blue-chip clients such as AT&T, Pfizer, and JP Morgan Chase. [6] It has had key roles in the resurrection of Chrysler in the 1970s, the acquisition of Getty Oil by Texaco, and the negotiation of the master development agreement for the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks. [2] The firm is also known for its business litigation, and has represented clients in many of the precedent-setting Delaware corporate governance cases. [7]
The firm placed #41 on The American Lawyer's 2021 AmLaw 200 ranking. In the 2021 Global 200 survey, Wachtell Lipton Rosen Katz ranked as the 50th highest grossing law firm in the world. [1]
In November 2023, amid a wave of alleged antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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." [8]
I worked at one of the last remaining unlimited-liability partnerships in the biglaw business.