Bryan Cave

Bryan Cave LLP
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri
No. of offices	21 total, 6 international
No. of attorneys	approx. 1200
Major practice areas	General practice
Key people	Don G. Lents, Chair of the Firm
Revenue	$411 million (2006)
Date founded	1873
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Slogan	A Broader Perspective
Website
www.bryancave.com

Bryan Cave LLP is an international law firm with twenty-one offices worldwide, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Overview

The international law firm Bryan Cave LLP dates back to 1873 in St. Louis. Founded in 1873 in St. Louis as King, Phillips and Stewart, the firm became Stewart, Bryan, Christie and Williams through a merger in 1911. It is that Bryan who would take top billing in the firm name in 1916, a place of honor he still holds nearly a century later. When Rhodes Cave joined in 1917, the firm took on the name Bryan, Williams and Cave and the Cave became part of the name which is still retained today. In fact, Bryan Cave has long been nicknamed "The Cave" first by young lawyers (as a metaphor for the typical long hours and cave-like working conditions of associates at "The Cave", as were typical at most large firms)and then by paralegals and administrative staff, many who are typically "on-call" 24/7. Today, the firm is actually known for reasonable associate working hours. "The Cave" has a diversified world-wide legal practice, but is best known for representing large corporations in and around St. Louis, and for being well-connected politically. Bryan Cave lawyers include former U.S. Senators. John Danforth and Alan Dixon, and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. The firm represents a wide variety of business, financial, institutional and individual clients, including publicly held multinational corporations, large and mid-sized privately held companies, partnerships and emerging companies. Bryan Cave represented McDonnell Douglas Aircraft from its founding throughout that company's existence and since its purchase by Boeing, has represented Boeing. Employing a combination of expansion, foreign alliances and domestic mergers, Bryan Cave has established itself in the 21st century as an ambitious upstart on the global scene while retaining its historic ties to the Show-Me State. Bryan Cave is recognized as a leader and innovator in law firm technology, which was developed out of necessity as Bryan Cave has steadily grown in size and number of offices. The Cave now employs more than 1,000 lawyers and consulting professionals in 21 offices in America, Europe and Asia.

Its lawyers work in client teams either specific to an area of law or directed toward certain industries. The Cave's chairman,Don Lents who works from the St. Louis office, notes, “It is my sense that there is a growing focus on client teams and the need for such teams to be front and center in the thinking of firms.” Members of these groups are drawn from various disciplines and offices located around the globe. The firm’s computer and communication technology resources allow these lawyers to work closely together without regard to geographic location. Mr. Lents has served for a number of years as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and previously served as head of the firm’s Transactions Practice and chair of the Corporate Department. He also was the partner in charge of the firm’s London office from its opening in 1982 through 1984.

Affiliates

Bryan Cave International Consulting LLC

In addition to its 1,000+ lawyers, The Cave owns and operates a business consultancy on non-lawyers with 8 international offices. Bryan Cave International Consulting LLC ("BCIC") is a consulting firm of non-lawyer professionals, mostly tax accountants and financial advisors, affiliated with Bryan Cave LLP. BCIC operates as an extension of Bryan Cave’s International Trade Group which attempts "to serve clients that are planning access into a specific market or exploring options for locating various business functions, whether they want to take a proactive approach towards ensuring compliance with Customs and regulatory requirements or seek to defend and resolve a matter with the authorities, or they want to capitalize on cost-savings opportunities under trade agreements or design effective countermeasures against illicit trade." Such accounting branches of large law firms are often done in order to stay competitive with large accounting firms that have sought to expand into law practice through close relationship with one or more law firms, such multidisciplinary approach arrangements being termed "multi-disciplinary practices. As a trade and customs consultancy based in Asia, Bryan Cave International Consulting (BCIC) has provided advisory and advocacy services to multinational clients in the IT/electronics, automotive, agricultural, logistics, chemicals and other industries on a range of customs, trade and investment matters. BCIC is a consulting firm of non-lawyer professionals and a wholly owned affiliate of Bryan Cave LLP.

Notable Transactions

• Represented Ralcorp in the $2.6 billion merger between Ralcorp and Kraft Food's portfolio of cereals under the Post Cereal label.
• Advised Monsanto in its $290 million purchase of Aly Participacoes, a division of Brazilian global conglomerate Votorantim. Aly Participacoes operated two companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A. which focus on sugarcane breeding and related applied genomics and biotech in the sugarcane industry.
• Counseled Barnes & Noble, the bookseller, on its $596 million purchase of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc., a division that had been spun off from Barnes & Noble in the mid-1980s. The acquisition closed on October 1, 2009.

Offices

Bryan Cave LLP

Atlanta Boulder, CO Charlotte Chicago Colorado Springs Dallas Denver Edwardsville, IL Irvine Jefferson City Kansas City

Los Angeles New York Overland Park, KS Phoenix San Francisco St. Louis Washington, D.C.

Hamburg Hong Kong London Paris Shanghai Singapore

Bryan Cave International Consulting

Bangkok Beijing Jakarta Kuala Lumpur

Manila Shanghai Singapore Tokyo

History

Founded in 1873, the firm began as King, Phillips & Stewart in St. Louis, Mo., in a building across the street from the current St. Louis office. It is the largest law firm based in St. Louis, MO and the 57th in revenue among the world's law firms.

In 1911, a merger resulted in Stewart, Bryan, Christie & Williams. In 1916, P. Taylor Bryan’s name became first in the firm title – where it remains to this day. Rhodes Cave joined the firm in 1917. It then became Bryan, Williams & Cave.

The firm took on as a client a “poor Scotsman with just a little ‘bitty’ aviation company” in 1939. That little company was McDonnell Aircraft Company, now The Boeing Company, which the firm has served since.

As it began its second 100 years, Bryan Cave had become a strong regional law firm with 52 lawyers in St. Louis. Creation of executive committee and managing partner positions in 1973 revolutionized how the firm handled its “law business.”

In 1978, Bryan Cave began to spread its geographic footprint. Its first office outside St. Louis opened in Washington, D.C., to enhance a growing legislative practice. Offices in Los Angeles and New York followed.

In 1980, the firm established an international presence by opening a branch office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to handle business transactions in the Middle East. In 1982, the firm opened its London office. The firm soon began expansion to the west and southwest in the U.S. with offices opening in Phoenix (1987) and Kansas City (1988). An Asia presence was established when the firm opened offices in Hong Kong (1994) and Shanghai (1996)to serve clients with Chinese legal needs. The Chicago office opened in 2001.

In 1993, Bryan Cave was chosen to represent the government of Kuwait in the preparation, submission and prosecution of its claims of more than $100 billion against the state of Iraq arising out of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

Bryan Cave and New York-based Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman merged in 2002.

The firm established an office in 2004 across the street from the very active Madison County, IL courthouse in Edwardsville, IL to serve southern Illinois and especially to assist clients defending against class action, product liability and commercial litigation matters in Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois, which are well known as plaintiff-friendly venues for suits against large companies.

Bryan Cave International Consulting LLC was formed by the firm as Bryan Cave International Trade LLC in 2005, based in Asia, to expand Bryan Cave’s international trade-related services. BCIT was rebranded as BCIC in 2011 to reflect the expanded depth of resources and services available through the subsidiary.

In 2005 Bryan Cave lost its Riyadh and Dubai offices to the Houston, Texas based mega-firm Fullbright & Jaworski, but retained its office in Kuwait.

Bryan Cave recovered from that setback and continued to expand its global footprint in 2007 when it opened an office in Hamburg and Milan. The next year, 2008, it expanded in the European Union with the opening of a Paris office. 2008 also was the year the firm opened an office in San Francisco.

In 2009, Bryan Cave and Atlanta-based Powell Goldstein merged, creating an expanded firm with new offices in Atlanta, Charlotte and Dallas.

At the beginning of 2011, Bryan Cave closed its Milan office, but continues with its Hamburg and Paris offices.

See also

• List of largest U.S. law firms by number of lawyers

External links

• Official Firm Website
• Bryan Cave International Consulting
• Firm Videos, Audio Recordings, Blogs and Webinars
• LawPeriscope profile
• Vault Profile