Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Headquarters	CBS Building New York City, New York, U.S.
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;60 years ago (1965)
Founders	Herbert Wachtell Jerry Kern
Company type	General partnership
Website	www.wlrk.com

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (known as Wachtell Lipton or Wachtell) is an American white-shoe law firm in New York City. ^[2] Wachtell has only a single, Manhattan office, making it one of the smallest firms in the AmLaw 100. It has the highest per partner profits of any law firm and pays significantly above the "Cravath scale" market rate for associates. ^[3]

History

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]

In November 2023, amid a wave of pro-Palestine protests 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 such incidents, which the letter called antisemitic, 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]

Fossil Fuels Representation

Wachtell defended ConocoPhillips in a case that New York City brought against multinational oil and gas companies, alleging that the companies had contributed to climate change, and seeking to recover for injuries that the city sustained due to rising sea levels caused by emission of greenhouses gases from fuels sold by these companies. ^[9] In the opinion, Judge Keenan explained that ConocoPhillips is the 9th largest cumulative producer of fossil fuels in world history, contributing to the harms of climate change. ConocoPhillips has been a long-time client of the firm, which represented it in its $13 billion acquisition of Concho Resources and its $35.6 billion acquisition of Burlington Resources. ^[10] Wachtell also led ConocoPhillips' $22.5bn Marathon Oil acquisition. ^[11]

Notable alumni

• William T. Allen, of counsel — former Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery; New York University School of Law professor
• Anthony J. Casey, associate — University of Chicago Law School professor
• James Cole, partner — Acting Deputy Secretary of Education
• Allison Christians, associate — H. Heward Stikeman chair in Taxation, McGill University Faculty of Law
• George T. Conway III, associate and partner — lawyer for Paula Jones in sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, founder of The Lincoln Project, husband of Kellyanne Conway
• Miguel Estrada — attorney and former judicial nominee
• Glenn Greenwald, associate — political activist, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize recipient ^[12]
• Maura R. Grossman, of counsel — research professor and former director of Women in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo; electronic discovery attorney ^[13]
• Elizabeth Holtzman, associate — former U.S. Representative and Brooklyn District Attorney
• Robert J. Jackson Jr., associate — Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• David Lat, associate — blogger, Underneath Their Robes and Above the Law
• Kenneth K. Lee, associate — judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ^[14]
• Matt Levine, associate — attorney, investment banker, and writer ^[15]
• Robert Morgenthau, of counsel — former New York County District Attorney ^[16]
• Bernard Nussbaum, partner — former White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton
• George Postolos, associate — former president and CEO of Houston Rockets
• Samuel Rascoff, associate — New York University School of Law professor
• Jed Rubenfeld, associate — Yale Law School professor
• Andrew Schlafly, associate — founder of Conservapedia, General Counsel for Association of American Physicians and Surgeons ^[17]
• Richard J. Sullivan, associate — judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ^[18]
• Leo E. Strine Jr., of counsel – former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery; University of Pennsylvania Law School professor
• Sheena Wright, associate – former CEO of United Way of New York City, Deputy Mayor of New York City under Eric Adams

See also

• List of largest law firms by profits per partner
• White shoe firms

References

1. "Wachtell Lipton". Law.com.
2. "Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Company Profile | Vault.com". Vault. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
3. "The 2018 Am Law 100 Ranked by: Profits Per Equity Partner". Law.com. The American Lawyer. April 24, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
4. Cole, Brett (2008). "Godfathers—Flom and Lipton". M&A Titans: The Pioneers Who Shaped Wall Street's Mergers and Acquisitions Industry. Wiley. ISBN   9780470126899.
5. "Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | NYU School of Law". www.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
6. Summary of corporate practice.
7. See, e.g., Moran v. Household Int'l, Inc. , 500 A.2d 1346 (Del. 1985); Paramount Commc'ns, Inc. v. Time Inc. , 571 A.2d 1140 (Del. 1989); Air Prods. & Chemicals, Inc. v. Airgas, Inc., 16 A.3d 48 (Del. Ch. 2011).
8. 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.
9. City of New York v. BP P.L.C., 325 F.Supp.3d 466 (2018)
10. "Andrew R. Brownstein - WLRK". www.wlrk.com. Retrieved 2025-04-04.
11. "Wachtell, Kirkland lead on ConocoPhillips' $22.5bn Marathon Oil acquisition". www.globallegalpost.com. Retrieved 2025-04-04.
12. NPR (2014). . Retrieved April 15, 2020.
13. American Lawyer (2016). The Wachtell Way of EDiscovery. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
14. Lee, Kenneth K. (2019). "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF).
15. Matt Levine (2021-03-08). "Libor Is Going Away for Real". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08. I worked at one of the last remaining unlimited-liability partnerships in the biglaw business.
16. New York Times (2010). Dealbook - Wachtell’s Newest Hire: 90-Year-Old Morgenthau. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
17. Chen, Vivia (July 9, 2007). "Shhh! Pro Bono's Not Just for Liberals Anymore". The American Lawyer. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
18. Sullivan, Richard J. (2018). "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF).