Weil, Gotshal & Manges

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Headquarters	New York City
No. of offices	20
No. of attorneys	1,200
Major practice areas	International Arbitration, Bankruptcy, Intellectual Property, Capital Markets, Finance, and Mergers & Acquisitions
Revenue	$1.185 billion (2011) date_founded = 1931 (New York)
Company type	LLP
Website
www.weil.com

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is a prominent international law firm, one of the largest and most prestigious in the world with 1,200 lawyers and gross annual revenue in excess of $1.1 billion. The firm was founded in New York City in 1931 by Frank Weil, Sylvan Gotshal, and Horace Manges. In 1968, Weil Gotshal moved to its current New York headquarters in the GM building overlooking Central Park.

History & Expansion

After its founding in 1931 Weil, Gotshal & Manges grew steadily in the following decades. By 1950 the firm numbered 19 lawyers, placing it first among New York’s “Jewish” law firms. As the ethnic distinctions among the city’s law firms disappeared in the last quarter of the 20th century, Weil continued to grow, establishing a client base that included some of the U.S.’s top corporations – including General Electric and General Motors – and positioning the firm among the largest in the country. In 1975 the firm opened an office in Washington, D.C., its first outside of New York, and this was followed in the 1980s by locations in Miami, Houston, and Dallas.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent move by Central and Eastern European countries toward market-based economies prompted Weil to launch its international expansion. The firm established offices in Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw in the early 1990s, and these openings were quickly followed by the establishment of offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Munich. In the 21st century the firm’s international expansion has focused on Asia, where Weil has launched offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Dubai. One-quarter of the firm’s lawyers now practice outside of the U.S. The firm now has 20 offices worldwide.

Recognition

The firm is rated as one of the top law firms by Vault.com. Chambers and Partners gives the firm high marks in the following practice areas: Bankruptcy, Corporate, Litigation, M&A, Private Equity:Buyouts, Investment Funds:Fund Formation, Financial Services Regulation, Intellectual Property, Antitrust, Patent Litigation, Labor and Employment, Securities Litigation, Entertainment Litigation, and Tax.

Financial Crisis of 2008-09

Like many large law firms with successful transactional law practices, Weil was adversely impacted by the recent financial crisis. The presence of the firm’s Restructuring Department – routinely considered one of the strongest in the world – helped to offset the diminished deal flow during the crisis as the firm posted relatively flat revenues during that time. It also helped the firm avoid major layoffs. Weil opted instead to introduce an incoming associate deferral program for 2009 and 2010, which delayed the starting dates of new associates for roughly a year and compensated the deferred associates with a stipend.

Key People

• Barry M. Wolf, Executive Partner
• Stephen J. Dannhauser, Chairman
• James W. Quinn co-chairs Weil’s Litigation practice, named several times by National Law Journal as one of the ten top trial lawyers in the United States.
• Thomas Roberts, Chairman of the over 600-lawyer Corporate department and a member of the firm’s Management Committee.
• Ira M. Millstein, senior partner at Weil, one of the leading authorities in the areas of government regulation, antitrust law and corporate governance. He has counseled numerous boards on issues of corporate governance, including the boards of General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, WellChoice (fka, Empire Blue Cross), Computer Associates and the Ford Foundation. He is Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance at the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance, Yale School of Management.
• Marcia Goldstein, chair of the Business, Finance & Restructuring department and a member of the firm's Management Committee. She has been at Weil for over 30 years and has handled some of the biggest bankruptcy cases in the world, including the restructuring of WorldCom, Inc.
• Michael Francies, managing partner of the London office and has experience in public and private mergers & acquisitions, private equity transactions and equity issues.
• Gerhard Schmidt, managing partner of the German offices and one of the leading private equity and M&A lawyers in Germany. He is one of the few German lawyers to combine competencies in corporate and tax law.
• Harvey R. Miller has been described by The New York Times as "the most prominent bankruptcy lawyer in the nation".
• J. Philip Rosen co-chairs Weil's Real Estate practice, Hospitality and Gaming practice, and Infrastructure practice, is considered one of the leading real estate restructuring lawyers

Notable Deals and Cases

• Olympus Corporation's, Olympus Scandal deal for British medical equipment maker Gyrus earned Weil, Gotshaw an undisclosed portion of the extraordinary $687 million fee. The $2 billion acquisition was the largest in Olympus’ history. The fee was shared with the deal's financial advisor and its broker. Auditor KPMG refused to issue an unqualified audit report due to issues with the Gyrus deal for which a 21-attorney Weil, Gotshaw team was legal advisor.
• General Electric’s $11.6 billion sale of GE Plastics to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation
• DIRECTV’s $25 billion stock-for-stock merger with Liberty Entertainment
• Sanofi Aventis’ $18 billion acquisition of Genzyme Corporation
• General Electric’s $35 billion joint venture with Comcast for ownership of NBC Universal
• Apple, Inc.’s favorable settlement of litigation with Burst.com
• CBS Corporation’s successful defense against a lawsuit filed by former reporter and news anchorman Dan Rather
• ExxonMobil’s successful breach of contract suit against Saudi Basic Industries resulting in a $400 million jury award, one of the largest in history
• eBay’s successful defense in trademark litigation with Tiffany & Co.
• Enron bankruptcy.
• Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
• Washington Mutual bankruptcy.
• General Motors bankruptcy.

External links

• Official firm website
• LawPeriscope Profile
• LinkedIn profile
• Twitter profile
• Chambers and Partners firm profile