The Cravath System is a set of business management principles first developed at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. John Oller, author of White Shoe, credits Paul Drennan Cravath with creating the model in the early 20th century, which was adopted by virtually all white-shoe law firms, 50 years before the phrase white shoe came into popular use. [1] The Cravath System has been adopted by many leading law firms, [2] [3] strategy consulting agencies, and investment banks in the United States.
Paul Cravath built a reputation handling complex lawsuits for the new electrical industry. Devising the Cravath System, he enlarged the law office, and also professionalised it by establishing full-time librarians, a recruiting system focused solely on the highest-ranked law schools, and partners who specialized. [4] Robert Swaine describes the fundamentals of the Cravath System in the beginning of Volume 2 of the history of the Cravath firm. [5] These include:
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other matters in which legal advice and other assistance are sought.
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City, and additional offices in London and Washington, D.C. The firm, which specializes in complex transactions and high profile litigation, has consistently been regarded as the most prestigious law firm in the United States.
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. It is one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with 2021 profits per partner exceeding $6 million and profits per lawyer exceeding $1.3 million.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is an American white-shoe law firm in New York City. 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.
In the United States, a white-shoe firm is a term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have been traditionally associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term is most often used to describe leading old-line law firms and Wall Street financial institutions, as well as accounting firms that are over a century old, typically in New York City and Boston.
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.
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.
Emory Roy Buckner was a prominent U.S. lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he gained a reputation as one of the greatest prosecutors in American history. During his time at Root, Clark & Bird, he was also one of the architects of modern Wall Street's legal culture.
Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, also known as Finley, Kumble, was a United States law firm founded in 1968. The firm, based in New York, had grown from eight lawyers at its inception to over 700 lawyers at the time of its bankruptcy and dissolution in 1987. At the time it dissolved, Finley, Kumble was the fourth largest law firm in the United States, and at its peak was the country's second largest firm, behind only the international firm Baker & McKenzie.
Paul Drennan Cravath was a prominent American corporate lawyer and presiding partner of the New York law firm known today as Cravath, Swaine & Moore. At the firm, he devised and implemented the Cravath System which has come to define the structure and practice of most large American firms.
Andrew W. Needham is a prominent American tax lawyer. He is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He joined the law firm as a lateral partner in 2005 from Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Needham was among the Cravath partners who advised Johnson & Johnson in its 2011 purchase of Synthes, Inc. for $21.3 billion, then the largest acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in its history.
Up or out, also known as a tenure or partnership system, is the requirement for members of a hierarchical organization to achieve a certain rank within a certain period of time. If they fail to do so, they must leave the organization.
C. Allen Parker is an American business executive and attorney. He was the senior executive vice president and general counsel of Wells Fargo, and also served as its interim CEO and president. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Parker was a partner at New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and served as its fifteenth presiding partner.
Evan Robert Chesler is an American lawyer and a partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Faiza J. Saeed is an American attorney in the field of mergers and acquisitions, and the presiding partner of law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Rowan D. Wilson is an American judge who has served as the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals since 2023. He is the first African American to serve as chief judge.
John Oller is an American biographer, historian, and former Wall Street attorney.
The history of the American legal profession covers the work, training, and professional activities of lawyers from the colonial era to the present. Lawyers grew increasingly powerful in the colonial era as experts in the English common law, which was adopted by the colonies. By the 21st century, over one million practitioners in the United States held law degrees, and many others served the legal system as justices of the peace, paralegals, marshals, and other aides.
Matthew Charles McDermott is an American lawyer who has served an associate justice of the Iowa Supreme Court since 2020.
Derek Zaba is an American attorney and advisor known for his expertise in shareholder activism and takeover defence. He is a partner and co-chair of the shareholder activism and corporate defense practice at Sidley Austin LLP.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)