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Milbank

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{{Infobox Law Firm | firm_name = Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP | firm_logo = File:Milbank.gif | headquarters = New York, NY | num_offices = 10 | num_attorneys = 550 | practice_areas = General practice | revenue = $541,000,000 USD (2007) </ref> [1] Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

History

Milbank's roots are traced back to 1866, with the inception of the original firm, Anderson, Adams & Young. The first merger took place in April 1929, when the then-successor firm, Murray & Aldrich, combined with Webb, Patterson & Hadley and became Murray, Aldrich & Webb. In 1931, the Firm merged with Masten & Nichols to become Milbank, Tweed, Hope & Webb. The Firm's present name dates from 1962.

Historically, Milbank has represented some of the biggest names in business and finance. For decades, the firm's biggest clients were the Rockefeller family and the Chase Manhattan Bank. The firm also advised the Vanderbilt family, members of the Mellon and Johnson families, as well as Jacqueline Onassis.

The firm was responsible for all the legal work on the building of Rockefeller Center, and its offices can still be found in the Chase Manhattan Building. Additionally, the firm helped create legal strategies for the developing railroads of the early 1900's, and helped clients resolve the disputes arising over commodities shortages and bank loans in the wake of World War I. During the post-war recovery, clients turned to Milbank to help finance U.S. and overseas corporate activity, deal with the bankruptcies, reorganizations and securities disputes surrounding the financial collapse of the 1920s, and resolve issues arising from the regulatory environment of the 1930s. After World War II, as the economy shifted to peacetime production, the Firm was called upon advise new commercial and industrial developments, and quickly became a leader in the growth and expansion of public utilities and a wide range of corporate activities.

As commercial and investment banks progressively drove the financing of American business, Milbank created hedge funds and other investment vehicles for financial clients in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and capitalized on the growth of international business, finance, and technology transactions in the 1990s. Today, Milbank has offices in the world's most important financial centers, including London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing, in addition to domestic offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Name Partners

Albert G. Milbank

Albert G. Milbank had been a partner in the firm of Masten & Nichols; when that firm merged with Murray, Aldrich & Webb, he became a senior partner of the newly formed Milbank, Tweed, Hope & Webb. While a partner of the Firm, Mr. Milbank was also a member of the board of directors of the Welfare Board of New York City and Greater New York, as well as of the New York War Fund and the National Institute of Social Science. He was a trustee emeritus of Princeton University and a trustee of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Among the many honors he received was that of Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - Civil Division. In 1946, he received the first annual Award Medal of the Welfare Council for Distinguished Service to the Community. He was instrumental in establishing the Milbank Memorial Fund, an endowed operating foundation that works to improve health by helping decision makers in the public and private sectors acquire and use the best available evidence to inform policy for health care and population health. See www.milbank.org.

Harrison Tweed

Harrison Tweed became a member of Murray, Prentice & Aldrich, a predeccssor of Milbank, in 1920. He also served as president of the American Law Institute, chaired the American Law Institute's Committee on Continuing Legal Education in collaboration with the American Bar Association, and was also president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In addition, he served as president of Sarah Lawrence College, president of the Legal Aid Society, and was appointed by President Kennedy as the first chair of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He had great interest in the arts, and was known for his dedication in assisting young artists as well as his wit, integrity and keen sense of humor.

Morris Hadley

Morris Hadley came to the firm in 1929. He represented many large corporations, both in the United States and abroad. He authored two books: one, a biography of his father who had been president of Yale University, and nother entitled The Citizen and the Law. Mr. Hadley was a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation and also sat ont he board of trustees of both the Pierpont Morgan Library and the New York Public Library where, from 1943-1958, he served as president.

John J. McCloy

John J. McCloy was originally a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, and joined what is today Milbank in 1946, after serving as Assistant Secretary of War from 1941-1945 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He left the firm in 1947 to serve as president of the World Bank, and was appointed by President Truman as High Commissioner of Germany in 1949. In 1952, he returned to the private sector and served as chair of the Chase National Bank, which under his leadership became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955. During this period, he also served as chair of the Ford Foundation. He returned to Milbank in 1961, but was almost immediately appointed by President Kennedy as his Special Assistant on Disarmarment. He thereafter returned to Milbank, which was renamed Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, and remained a general partner for 27 years, until he passed away in 1989.

At Milbank, McCloy acted for the "Seven Sisters" (the leading multinational oil companies, including Exxon), in their initial confrontations with the nationalisation movement in Libya - as well as negotiations with Saudi Arabia and OPEC. Because of his stature in the legal world and his long association with the Rockefellers, and as a seven-time presidential adviser, he is sometimes referred to as the "Chairman of the American Establishment".

Turks & Brahmins: Upheaval at Milbank, Tweed

In 1990, Ellen Joan Pollock published Turks & Brahmins: Upheaval at Milbank, Tweed, a book chronicling Milbank's history and transformation into a high-grossing late-20th century megafirm.

The book notes that Milbank was at one time the largest law firm in the country, with a carefully nurtured "insular, noble culture." For 50 years, from 1931 to 1981, the firm never took on a lateral partner from another firm; all of its 65 or so partners had apprenticed with the firm from mostly Ivy league schools. Until 1984, no Milbank partner had ever left the firm to become a lateral-hire partner elsewhere. However, by 1984, the legal market have revolutionized as both new and old firms ballooned in size, dumped lockstep compensation for "merit" systems that rewarded acheivers, raided each other for star players, and hustled ceaselessly for clients. Pollock's book narrates how, during the latter half of the 1980's, a determined group of partners transformed Milbank - more than doubling its size and luring on board such glamorous laterals as former Abscam prosecutor Thomas Puccio and the Asian-business rainmaking dynamo, Alice Young. By 1989, profits per partner had doubled what they were in 1984, and the firm's overall revenues had tripled. The book brings to life the numerous personalities on both sides of the Milbank revolution, chronicling the displacement and decay of what Tom Wolfe called "the old Protestant aristocracy" that once ruled the United States.


Office Locations

New York Headquarters

Milbank's world headquarters, in One Chase Manhattan Plaza in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District

Milbank's New York office, the headquarters of the firm, offers clients a full range of domestic and international financial legal services. Localted in the heart of New York City's Financial District, steps from Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, the New York office has been at the forefront of major financial legal trends since its founding in 1866. The firm occupies a number of floors of One Chase Manhattan Plaza. The Wall Street Station of the 1,2,3 subway line runs through the basement of the building.

Other United States Offices

In addition to the firm's headquarters in New York City, Milbank maintains two offices in the United States.

Washington, D.C.

There are approximately 45 attorneys in Milbank's Washington, D.C. practice, located at 1850 K Street, NW in the nation's capital. The D.C. office combines the expertise of the firm's traditional "[Wall Street]" practice - including a focus on complex international transactions and arbitrations and nationwide litigation - with experience in dealing with the federal government and the various [multilateral institutions] located in Washington.

Los Angeles

Milbank's Los Angeles office is home to more than 80 attorneys, and is the largest office outside of the firm's New York City headquarters. The office, located on South Figueroa Street, delivers the firm's full range of legal services. Many of the attorneys in the L.A. office has national and international reputations as leading practitioners in their fields, including Partner Linda Dakin-Grimm who was recognized in May 2007 as a Top Woman Litigator by the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

International Offices

As counsel to foreign corporations with U.S. interests and U.S. corporations operating overseas, Milbank forged international relationships that endure today. In 1925, for example, the firm worked on a proposed Japanese bond issue for the Toho Electric Power Company. Fifty-two years later, in 1977, Milbank opened the first American law office in Tokyo, ten years before any other American law firm. Today, Milbank offices are located in key geographic regions to serve clients across the globe.

London

Milbank's London office opened nearly 30 years ago, and today offers a range of services under both English and New York law. Today, there are 45 attorneys in Milbank's London office.

Milbank's London office, located at 10 Gresham Street, City of London

The firm recently relocated to its new quarters at 10 Gresham Street in the City of London, London's financial district.

Milbank's London lawyers work closely with colleagues in Germany, North America and Asia, as well as with lawyers in correspondent firms across Europe. The firm's partners and associates have been recognized as leaders in their respective fields and was named "International Law Firm of the Year", by Legal Week magazine. Additionally, on two occasions, Milbank has been recognized as the "Banking and Finance Team of the Year" at the Legal Business Awards in London. Five of the firm's London lawyers (together with four of the Munich partners) have been included in The Lawyer magazine's "Hot 100" list of European lawyers.

Asia/Pacific (Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong)

Milbank's commitment to Japan began in 1925, when founding partner Morris Hadley traveled to Yokohama to prepare an indenture for the Toho Electric Power Company. In 1977, Milbank became the first U.S. law firm to establish an office in Tokyo under its own name. That same year, Milbank became one of the first international law firms to open an office in Hong Kong. Milbank was again one of the first U.S. first to open an office in Singapore, and did so in 1985. The firm opened its Beijing office in 2006, though it has been active in China since the early 1990's.

For four years running, the International Financial Law Review has nominated Milbank as Asia's #1 "International Law Firm of the Year." Other awards for the Asian practice include:

• #1 China Deal of the Year (Asian Legal Business) • #1 SE Asia Deal of the Year (Asian Legal Business) • Project Finance Deal/Firm of the Year (IFLR Asian Awards) • Best Equity Deal; Best IPO Deal (Finance Asia Achievement Awards) • Deal of the Year (Asian Counsel)

Additionally, Milbank's partners in Asia have been recognized as among the world's leaders by: Chambers Global, AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers 2005 - Asia Law and Practice, Euromoney's "Best of the Best" Legal Expert Guide, IFLR 1000, and Asia Pacific Legal 500.

Germany (Frankfurt, Munich)

The approximately 30 lawyers that make up Milbank's German practice in Frankfurt and Munich focus on legal advice in corporate, finance and tax matters.

The Frankfurt office was established in 2001, and the Munich office opened in 2004. The German offices work closely with Milbank's London and US offices to complete complex cross-border financing transactions.

Practice Areas

Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions

The lawyers in the Milbank Global Corporate Group represent organizations in a broad range of regulated and non-regulated industries, from energy, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals to financial services, gaming, technology, telecommunications, and media, in connection with their most difficult and important domestic, international, and cross-border transactions; securities compliance matters; and corporate defense, proxy contests, and shareholder activism issues.

The firm has advised both negotiated and hostile transactions, including mergers and consolidations, stock and asset acquisitions and dispositions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, proxy contests and tender offers, leveraged and management buyouts, restructurings and bankruptcy reorganizations, and other complex, cutting-edge transactions. Milbank's clients include strategic buyers and sellers, private equity investors and their portfolio companies, lenders, financial advisors, boards of directors and management teams, government financial institutions, and other parties.

Financial Restructuring

Milbank’s attorneys have played instrumental roles in several of the largest and most complicated bankruptcy cases in US history. Milbank litigators have acheived recoveries for debtors, senior creditors, official and ad hoc creditor committees, equity holders, and other parties in interest. Milbank has served as counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 cases of Enron and Refco and its litigators played a prominent part in representing the agent to the senior secured lenders of Global Crossing. According to Business Week magazine, Milbank is "the leading specialist in the representation of creditors," and has consistently ranked among the most prestigious firms representing debtors and creditors' committees in The American Lawyer's Bankruptcy Corporate Scorecard.

Intellectual property

Milbank’s intellectual property practice group provides comprehensive legal services to the world’s leading electronic, pharmaceutical, chemical and consumer product companies. Recognized as a leading US patent litigation practice by Managing Intellectual Property and in Europe by Legal Week, Milbank has a truly global reach. Its clients represent an array of international companies such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, Research In Motion, AstraZeneca and Bayer, as well as leading US companies such as Fisher Price, Anheuser Busch, JPMorgan Chase, Nascar and Lehman Brothers. In addition to representing clients in trial, appellate and administrative proceedings, Milbank provides comprehensive dispute resolution and problem-solving advice.

Leveraged Finance

Milbank’s Leveraged Finance Group advises financial institutions, companies and private equity clients on all aspects of leveraged transactions, including senior, subordinated and mezzanine debt transactions, bridge financings and high yield bond offerings. This practice group is comprised of partners and associates who focus on executing leveraged finance transactions of all types.

The leveraged finance team regularly represents a number of the world’s leading financial institutions and private equity firms and has extensive experience in structuring complex debt instruments that have been utilized in a wide variety of leveraged loan and high yield financing transactions. Milbank's leveraged finance group has particular strengths in first lien, second lien and unsecured loans and bonds; leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and going private transactions; asset based and cash flow based financings; working capital and letter of credit facilities; structured financings; debtor-in-possession financings and exit financings; financial restructurings; and bridge financings.

The group has advised ABN AMRO, Advent, Apollo Advisors, Bank of America, The Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs Mezzanine, Goldman Sachs PIA, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Madison Dearborn Partners, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and many others.

Litigation and Arbitration

Milbank's international arbitration group has achieved significant successes for corporations, financial institutions and governments in high stakes arbitrations around the world. Members of the group have been hailed by Euromoney Guide and other publications as leaders in their field. A key focus of Milbank's international arbitration group is resolving investor-governmental disputes pursuant to international investment treaties. Representations have involved electricity, gas, transportation and mining concessions; joint-venture agreements; satellite and other insurance coverage; construction; and energy distribution.

White-collar crime and investigations

Milbank's litigation group includes a white collar practice. Lawyers in the group include former federal prosecutors, SEC attorneys and a prominent former federal district and court of appeals judge. The firm has defended clients in several high-profile investigations of the financial industry, including investigations of tax shelters; revenue-sharing and market-timing practices of mutual funds; soft-dollar and directed brokerage practices of investment advisors and broker-dealers; specialist trading; and revenue-sharing practices of insurance carriers and brokers.

Project Finance

Milbank’s Global Project Finance Department, comprising more than 100 attorneys (including 17 partners) in offices worldwide, is fully qualified to provide legal advice under both U.S. and English law. The group has pioneered the application of limited recourse project finance techniques internationally for more than 25 years. Over the past three years, Milbank has closed more than 140 project financings which raised more than $85 billion for infrastructure projects across the globe. In these financings, the group represented various project participants, including credit providers, underwriters, advisors, sponsors, project joint ventures, insurers, contractors, government agencies and multilateral institutions.

Milbank’s Global Project Finance Department has traditionally been engaged in projects in industries such as power (including independent power projects, cogeneration, coal, hydro, nuclear, wind and alternative power), power transmission and distribution, pipelines, oil and gas and petrochemicals (including exploration, production, storage, refining, gasification, LNG and production platforms), telecommunications and space (including cellular, cable, fixed, mobile, direct broadcast, broadband and satellite imaging systems), waste disposal and recycling, water treatment, mining and natural resources (including aluminum, coal, copper, gold, iron, steel, zinc, uranium, titanium and other natural resources and metals), pulp and paper, transportation (including airports, rail, roads and shipping) and other types of infrastructure.

As the project finance marketplace has evolved, Milbank has expanded its worldwide practice to include asset disposition, restructuring, portfolio securitization, credit enhancement and political risk mitigation techniques.

Real Estate

Milbank provides counsel to domestic and foreign financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, investment banks, developers, investors and others who participate in complex real estate transactions. The firm has a longstanding involvement in the field of real estate finance and development. Commencing with Rockefeller Center in the 1930s and continuing with Lincoln Center in New York, L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, Embarcadero Center in San Francisco and many other projects, Milbank lawyers have represented developers and investors in the financing and development of many of the nation’s premier real estate projects. Such representation typically has included advice and assistance in all phases of development from initial conceptual planning through equity and loan financing and construction to operation, refinancing and disposition.

Milbank’s real estate lawyers are experienced in the entire spectrum of mortgage transactions, including construction financing, participating and convertible mortgages, sale-leaseback transactions, REIT loans, performing and non-performing mortgage pool financings, mezzanine debt transactions, project financings and securitizations. Milbank attorneys have played important roles in an array of complex and creative financings and, during the recent recession, were involved with the debt restructuring of numerous high profile real estate developers, including Donald Trump, Olympia & York, Peter Kalikow, William Zeckendorf, Bernard Mendik, A. Alfred Taubman, Melvin Simon, Leona and Harry Helmsley, Harry Macklowe and Trammel Crow.

The group has also been involved in the renovation or restoration of numerous historic properties, including the Statue of Liberty and the old Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco building.

Regulatory

Milbank has an active broker-dealer regulatory practice providing counsel to many of Wall Street’s leading financial institutions. The firm’s expertise includes advice to clients on trading, research, clearing and prime brokerage, and syndicate and investment banking practices. Milbank attorneys represent firms and their management in examinations, inquiries, or investigations conducted by the SEC, NASD, NYSE or other securities regulators. Finally, the attorneys conduct regulatory risk assessments, and assist clients in developing effective and practical supervisory and compliance programs.

Reinsurance

Milbank represents both cedants and reinsurers, from trial and appellate cases to mediation and arbitration, in complex disputes involving property/casualty and life/health insurance. Recently, the firm defended a Bermuda-based reinsurer in investigations by US and European regulators into the use of finite/nontraditional reinsurance products. The firm also won a major victory in the US Supreme Court in favor of insurers who challenged California's purported regulation of European life insurers and reinsurers. In a separate matter, Milbank obtained full rescission of a reinsurance treaty for several major reinsurers in a fraud dispute against worker's compensation insurers. In addition, Milbank obtained an order to consolidate 46 reinsurance disputes involving 21 reinsurance treaties – Milbank also prevailed on the merits of the case.

Securities

According to Legal 500, Milbank has one of the leading securities litigation practices in the nation, representing clients in some of the most influential cases ever brought under the federal securities laws. Milbank attorneys have represented financial institutions, issuers, broker-dealers, investment advisers, accounting firms and individuals in hundreds of class and derivative actions. These matters have involved securities fraud, disclosure, public offerings, insider trading, market manipulation, mergers and acquisitions, conflicts of interest, self-dealing, among other issues. The firm is also a recognized leader in defending mutual fund actions brought under the ’40 Act.

Tax

Milbank has a very dynamic tax practices, and lawyers work in specialized, but overlapping, practice teams organized to ensure highly-developed legal expertise, intensive contact with the business environment in each practice area and unparalleled efficient delivery of highly valued advice. With prominent practitioners of UK and German tax law along with established relationships with preeminent tax counsel around the world, Milbank's tax group is especially effective in developing cross-border solutions for transactions originating in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Milbank's tax practice has particular expertise in M&A and private equity, corporate finance, executive compensation and employee benefits, financial restructuring, international, transportation finance, project finance and litigation.

Transportation Finance

Milbank's Global Transportation Finance Group was recognized as "Best Law Firm" in a poll conducted in 2003 by Aircraft Economics Magazine. The group has earned various "Deal of the Year" awards from industry periodicals. The Transportation Finance group regularly works with the Firm's tax, structured finance, capital markets and bankruptcy attorneys to structure complex and often "first of its kind" transactions.

The group has devised innovative financing structures and techniques which have become standard-bearers for the industry, and has participated in financings for companies throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Milbank's clients represent a cross-section of major players in asset financings, including investment banks, manufacturers, export agencies, borrowers, lenders, airlines, equity participants and lessees. Transactions typical of Milbank practice are public and private asset-based securitizations and structured financings, cross-border and export financings, secured lending, leveraged leasing, project financings and bankruptcy workouts and restructurings.

The firm has worked on several of the most significant securitizations of aircraft — including ALPS 94-1, ALPS 96-1, Aircraft Finance Trust (AFT), Lease Investment Flight Trust (LIFT), enhanced equipment trust certificate (EETC) financings, including the first prefunded EETC.

Trusts & Estates

Milbank's Trusts and Estates practice serves both individual and institutional clients, in the United States and internationally. The group works in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate administration, charitable giving, advising institutional fiduciaries, creating and advising exempt organizations, and trusts and estates litigation.

Milbank serves as counsel to such as Neuberger Berman Trust Company, the Rockefeller Trust Company, Chase Domestic and International Private Bank, and J.P. Morgan. We have advised various families in the formation of family trust companies, including the Rockefeller family, and the Dart family. We also represent the American Cancer Society, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller University, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, Vassar College, and many charitable organizations.

Rankings and Recognition

Milbank placed 11th on the American Lawyer's 2007 Gold List, recognizing its success in the areas of profitability, diversity, and pro bono work. Last year, the firm placed 28th on the Vault law firm prestige rankings. Additionally, the firm is top ranked in both Chambers Europe and Chambers USA in a number of its practices.

Lawdragon, a guide to the nation's best and brightest trial attorneys, included Milbank's own James Benedict and Scott Edelman in its list of leading Litigators in America. Additionally, the Best Lawyers in America 2007 included 28 Milbank attorneys in its survey, including practitioners specializing in banking, bankruptcy, commercial litigation, corporate governance, corporate/M&A, employee benefits, energy, equipment finance, information technology, project finance, securities, tax, trust and estates, white collar criminal defence, and international arbitration.

Milbank is ranked Number 1 in Technology and IT Outsourcing by Chambers USA 2006 and partners Robert Finkel and Debra Alligood White are identified as leading attorneys and up-and-coming individuals respectively. Milbank associate Janet Parkhurst is named as an "associate-to-watch" in this sector. Chambers USA 2006 also designated Milbank as having the Top Rated Aviation Finance Practice in the United States. Chambers guide stated that Milbank “dominates” this sector. The guide identified Elliot Gewirtz as a “true leader in his field” and partner Drew Fine’s knowledge and expertise is “unparalleled.” Milbank partners Hugh Robertson, Helfried Schwarz and Alvin Leong were also included as leading attorneys in the aircraft finance sector.

Los Angeles-based partners Ed Feo and Ken Baronsky were both identified as two of the Top 100 Lawyers in California in 2006 by the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal.

Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Law Firms (2003 edition) lists Milbank as the “Most Recommended Project Finance Law Firm”, and Infrastructure Journal (2002 edition) designates Milbank as “No. 1 Global Legal Advisor”, “No. 1 Power Legal Advisor”, “No. 1 North America Legal Advisor”, “No. 1 Telecoms Legal Advisor” and “No. 1 Latin America Legal Advisor”. Additionally, Euromoney’s Project Finance Book of Lists awarded Milbank the “No. 1 in the Overall Global” ranking, as well as “No. 1 in Petrochemical” and “No. 1 in Latin America". Milbank has been cited by Privatisation International three times as the “Most Active Law Firm in the World” engaged in the project financing of major infrastructure projects. Additionally, The American Lawyer recognized Milbank as the “No. 1 in Global Project Finance Law Firm” in three of the past four years.

Recent awards include:

  • #1 Legal Adviser to Arrangers in 2006 by number of renewable energy transactions (New Energy Finance)
  • #2 Legal Adviser to Arrangers in 2006 by total value of renewable energy transactions (New Energy Finance)
  • Renewable Energy Global Top 10 Legal Advisers 2006 (# 1 in project value, number of deals and market share percentage) (Dealogic)
  • Renewable Energy U.S. Top 10 Legal Adviser 2006 (# 1 in project value, number of deals and market share percentage) (Dealogic)
  • Global Projects and Energy Law Firm of the Year (Chambers, 2006)
  • Equity Deal of the Year and Project Finance Deal of the Year, 2006 International Financial Law Review Americas Awards
  • Euromoney’s Project Finance magazine for Milbank's role in ten “Deals of the Year” for deals closed in 2006, with an aggregate capital cost of $16 billion
  • North American Project Finance Law Firm of the Year (Chambers, 2005)
  • Satellite Law Firm of the Year for the total volume of deals (9) and the total volume of bond and loan deals totaling $5.4 billion (Satellite Finance, 2005)
  • European Project Finance Team of the Year, International Financial Law Review, 2006
  • Project Finance Deal of the Year, International Financial Law Review, 2006
  • Debt & Equity Deal of the Year – Mandra Forestry, International Financial Law Review, 2006
  • Power Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance International Yearbook 2006
  • Power Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • Law Firm of the Year, Global Water Intelligence (2006)
  • Latin American Mining Deal of the Year 2005 and 2006, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Renewables Deal of the Year 2006, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Project Bond Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Refinancing Deal of the Year 2005 and 2006, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Oil & Gas Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Infrastructure Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Single Asset Power Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • North American Merchant Power Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • Asia-Pacific Deal of the Year 2005, Project Finance magazine
  • Finance Asia Achievement Awards for 2005: Best Non-Investment Grade Bond Deal; Best Equity Deal; Best Privatization Deal; Best IPO Deal; Best China Deal; Deal of the Year
  • Asian Counsel Awards: Deal of the Year 2005
  • Asian Legal Business Awards 2005: Debt Market Deal of the Year; Equity Market Deal of the Year; M&A Market Deal of the Year; China Deal of the Year

Summer Associate Program

Milbank is recognized by the American Lawyer as having one of the best summer associate programs in the country, having ranked 14th and 16th in 2005 and 2006 out of more than 170 firms. The firm was only topped by two other New York City firms, both of which have considerably smaller summer classes. In 2007, Milbank's New York office was home to 85 summer associates. The Los Angeles and D.C. offices also have summer programs, though they are smaller than that in New York.

Milbank visits 28 law school campuses and job fairs during the fall recruiting season. A partner or senior associate conducts campus interviews. Candidates are notified within 24 with a call back invitation. Call back interviews consist of two partners and two associates from various practice areas, with a concentration on the area in which the stuent is most interest. Offer decisions are made within a week.

Summer associates rotate through three or four practice groups, depending on the length of their summer employment. Each group has a team to manange the work flow, including both a partner and associate assignment coordinator. The teams work closely with the hiring partners to ensure that all summer associates receive quality assignments and a variety of work. Additionally, all of Milbank's summer associates have the opportunity to rotate through one of the firm's foreign offices.

Social highlights of the summer program in 2007 included: welcome reception at the Chelsea Art Museum, dinner and tickets to Tony winner Spring Awakening (musical), beach day on Long Island, disco roller skating, cocktails and dinner at the historic Rainbow Room, movie nights, night at Chelsea Piers, golf outing, casino night, and various other events.

Diversity at Milbank

Milbank today consists of approximately 550 attorneys from 19 countries, speaking 38 languages. The firm's diversity statement notes that:

"Milbank is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where the individual differences among us, whether in terms of race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, physical challenge, or marital or family status, are (i) understood, respected and appreciated, (ii) recognized as a source of strength for the Firm and (iii) valued as qualities that enrich the environment in which we work."

File:Milbank Diversity Committee.jpg
Milbank's Diversity Committee

Milbank has a Diversity Scholarship Program, by which each year two deserving students will receive a salaried summer associate position as well as a $50,000 scholarship ($15,000 to be distributed among the students' third year of law school, and payment of the additional $35,000 contingent upon receipt and acceptance of a Milbank permanent offer, to be paid upon the students' joining the firm).

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy ranked 8th for law firms with the most minority partners, according to the American Lawyer's 2005 AmLaw 100, and ranked 9th overall in the Summer 2005 edition of the Minority Law Journal's diversity survey of the top 260 firms. Additionally, the firm's high diversity marks helped secure its place as the 11th firm in the United States, according to the American Lawyer's 2007 Gold List.

Notes

  1. ^ [1] from American Lawyer