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Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in
, Retrieved May 19, 2010. Beginning in the 1970s, the firm began growing rapidly, opening new offices in Orange County, Washington D.C., San Diego, Chicago, and New York. In the 1990s, the firm opened its first international office in London. Since then, it has continued to expand internationally with 18 international offices spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. The company is known for lobbying and litigating against actions to mitigate climate change. According to the Law Students for Climate Accountability, "Latham & Watkins is the only firm to be in the Top 5 Worst Firms for both transactions and litigation exacerbating climate change." Amid the global recession in 2009, the firm laid off 190 lawyers and 250 paralegal and support staff, representing twelve percent of the firm's total associates and ten percent of the support staff. At a time when many firms were conducting layoffs, the term "Lathamed" became legal slang for being laid off. , Latham's largest office is in New York City, with more than 450 lawyers. The firm claims it is the only fully integrated multinational law firm with no single headquarters. In 2007, Latham became the first American law firm to attain more than $2 billion in yearly revenue, and in 2018 it was the first law firm to report more than US$3 billion in gross revenue. It was briefly the highest-grossing law firm in the world, but has since lost the number one spot to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2021, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with profits per partner exceeding US$4.5 million.
History
The firm was founded in January 1934 in Los Angeles, California, by Dana Latham and Paul Watkins. Latham's practice focused on state and federaltax law
Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...
, and he eventually served as Commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
under President Dwight Eisenhower. Watkins's practice focused primarily on labor. At first, the firm grew slowly, with only 19 attorneys employed as of 1960.Latham.com, Retrieved May 19, 2010. Beginning in the 1970s, the firm began growing rapidly, opening new offices in Orange County, Washington D.C., San Diego, Chicago, and New York. In the 1990s, the firm opened its first international office in London. Since then, it has continued to expand internationally with 18 international offices spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. The company is known for lobbying and litigating against actions to mitigate climate change. According to the Law Students for Climate Accountability, "Latham & Watkins is the only firm to be in the Top 5 Worst Firms for both transactions and litigation exacerbating climate change." Amid the global recession in 2009, the firm laid off 190 lawyers and 250 paralegal and support staff, representing twelve percent of the firm's total associates and ten percent of the support staff. At a time when many firms were conducting layoffs, the term "Lathamed" became legal slang for being laid off. , Latham's largest office is in New York City, with more than 450 lawyers. The firm claims it is the only fully integrated multinational law firm with no single headquarters. In 2007, Latham became the first American law firm to attain more than $2 billion in yearly revenue, and in 2018 it was the first law firm to report more than US$3 billion in gross revenue. It was briefly the highest-grossing law firm in the world, but has since lost the number one spot to
Kirkland & Ellis
Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys, and was the first la ...
.
Latham opened its first office in Moscow in 1992, and thereafter represented a number of Russian state-owned companies. These clients include the state-owned bank VTB and the natural gas producer Novatek
Novatek (russian: ПАО «НОВАТЭК», , ) is Russia's second-largest natural gas producer (behind Gazprom), and the seventh-largest publicly traded company globally by natural gas production volume. The company was originally known as OAO F ...
. Latham ended its Russia operations in March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Rankings
Latham was ranked as the #1 firm in the ''Am Law 100'' rankings for 2017. In 2021, the firm received the highest number of practice and lawyer rankings from ''Chambers and Partners
Chambers and Partners (often noted elsewhere as Chambers & Partners) produces international rankings for the legal industry, which is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Orbach and Chambers
Orbach and Chambers Publishing Limited was founded ...
''. Dubbed an "A-List All-Star" by ''The American Lawyer
''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill. '' Vault.com'' named Latham one of the top five most prestigious firms in the United States and the most prestigious firm in Southern California.
Notable attorneys
* Dana Latham - Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service * Sean M. Berkowitz – Federal prosecutor in the trials ofEnron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...
executives Ken Lay
Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...
and Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventual ...
. Also defended Lori Loughlin in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal
In 2019, a scandal arose over a criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities. The investigation into the conspiracy was code named Operation Varsity Blues. The investigation and rela ...
.
*Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon
Charles Peregrine Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon''Burke's Peerage'', Baronetage & Knightage, 107th Edition, edited by Charles Mosley, Wilmington, Delaware, 2003, vol I, pp. 1121–6; (born 14 August 1975), styled as Lord Courtenay from 1998 unti ...
* Thomas J. Heiden - Partner and Former Global Chair of the firm.
*Philip Perry
Philip Jonathan Perry (born October 16, 1964) is an American attorney and was a political appointee in the administration of George W. Bush. He was acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice, general counsel of the Office of ...
– Former associate attorney general, former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
, and former general counsel of Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
.
* Kathryn Ruemmler – Former White House Counsel
The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...
to President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
and federal prosecutor in the trials of Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...
executives Ken Lay
Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...
and Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventual ...
.
See also
*List of largest law firms by profits per partner
This is a list of global law firms by profits per equity partner (PPEP) in 2020.
These are estimates and equity partners can make vastly different salaries inside the same firm.
See also
*List of largest law firms by revenue
*List of largest U ...
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Latham and Watkins Law firms established in 1934 Law firms based in Los Angeles Foreign law firms with offices in Hong Kong Foreign law firms with offices in Japan 1934 establishments in California