Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an international law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Headquarters	1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York, United States
No. of offices	8
No. of attorneys	1,020 [1]
Major practice areas	Antitrust, bankruptcy, corporate reorganization, communications, technology, employee benefits, executive compensation, entertainment, environmental, intellectual property, litigation, personal representation, private equity, real estate, tax
Key people	Brad S. Karp, chairman
Revenue	(gross revenue) $1,387,694,000 (2019)[2]
Date founded	Predecessor firm founded in 1875
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	paulweiss.com

History

Paul, Weiss's core practice areas are in litigation and corporate law.[3] In addition to its headquarters in New York, the firm has offices in Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Delaware, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

Notable representations

• Paul, Weiss represents detainees held by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A number of the detainees went on a hunger strike to protest alleged inhumane conditions. In response, prison authorities force-fed detainees. Paul, Weiss attorneys filed an emergency application demanding information about the condition of the detainees. In a ruling in October 2005, Judge Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the government to provide the detainees' lawyers with 24 hours' notice before initiating a force-feeding, and to provide lawyers with the detainees’ medical records a week before force-feeding.[4]
• Paul, Weiss assisted Thurgood Marshall to reverse the doctrine of "separate but equal" in Brown v. Board of Education.[5]
• Paul, Weiss represented Edith Windsor in challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor in 2013.[5]
• Paul, Weiss issued the report in the Deflategate football inflation controversy in 2015.[6]
• Paul, Weiss advised the casino operating unit of Caesars Entertainment in its bankruptcy proceedings, taking over the role from O'Melveny & Myers in 2011. It later became known that Apollo Global Management, a private equity sponsor of Caesars, was also a Paul, Weiss client. Paul, Weiss was found to have a conflict of interest in the matter, although an investigation found no actual harm to Caesars or its creditors.[7]
• Paul, Weiss represented the China Medical Technologies (CMED) Audit Committee in investigating an anonymous letter alleging possible illegal and fraudulent activities by management, prior to CMED being discovered to have been the subject of a $355 million fraud.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Pro Bono

Paul, Weiss lawyers performed an average of 130 hours of pro bono work in 2019, and two-thirds of their attorneys contributed at least 20 pro bono hours.[15][16]

In 2018, Paul, Weiss worked pro bono to try and find over 400 parents who were separated from their families at the southern border of the United States and then deported.[17] The work was part of the federal American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) lawsuit, which was brought against the Trump administration over its family separation policy.[18] A.C.L.U. asked Paul, Weiss to head the committee that worked with three nonprofits to find the parents.[19] By November, almost all of the 400 deported parents had been found.[20]

In 2019, Pablo Fernandez was released from jail after being wrongfully convicted of murder.[21] He’d served over twenty-four years in prison.[21] Lawyers from Paul, Weiss served as his pro-bono defense team.[21]

In 2020, Paul, Weiss said it wanted to unite law firms and public-interest organizations across the U.S. in a pro-bono effort to root out racism.[22] Attorney Jeh Johnson of Paul, Weiss was assigned to serve as New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s Special Advisor on Equal Justice in the Courts.[23]

Diversity

William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. was the first black lawyer hired at the firm. When he was hired in 1949, it was the first time ever that a major New York City law firm hired a person of color as an associate.[24][25]

Pauli Murray, a civil rights and women’s activist, was an associate at Paul, Weiss from 1956-1960.[26]

Jeh Johnson, a lawyer and the fourth director and secretary of Homeland Security, was hired by Paul, Weiss in 1994 as the firm’s first African-American partner.[27] After he stepped down from Homeland Security in 2017 he rejoined the firm’s litigation department.[27] Loretta Lynch, the first black woman to serve as United States attorney general, joined Paul, Weiss in 2019 as a litigation partner.[28] Ted Wells, a prominent trial attorney, is also a partner at Paul Weiss.[29]

In 2019, the nonprofit group Lawyers of Color reported that Paul, Weiss had the highest percentage of black lawyers of the 400 firms it ranked.[28]

In 2020, women comprised 26% of Paul, Weiss’ partnership, all equity partners.[30] This is slightly higher than the average for law firms (23.6% as reported by the National Association for Law Placement).[30]

On October 10, 2007, Paul, Weiss was included in a ranking of Manhattan law firms by the national law student group Building a Better Legal Profession. [31][32] The organization ranked firms by billable hours, demographic diversity, and pro bono participation. For diversity among partner attorneys, the firm was ranked in the 61st to 80th percentile for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and LGBT categories. Paul, Weiss was also ranked number 52 out of the 74 firms evaluated, for opportunities for advancement for female attorneys.[33][34]

Paul, Weiss received criticism when an announcement for the firm's new partner class was shared by the firm's LinkedIn page in early December 2018. The announcement displayed the photos of the 12 attorneys in the partner class; 11 of whom were men, and all of whom were white. The announcement generated discussions on diversity within the legal community, and prompted an open letter from more than 170 General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers expressing their disappointment that firms like Paul, Weiss "continue to promote partner classes that in no way reflect the demographic composition of entering associate classes."[35][36][37]

Controversy

In January and February of 2020, students at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York University School of Law, and the University of Michigan Law School protested the firm's recruitment events over its representation of Exxon Mobil Corporation.[38][39][40][41]

Name partners

• Randolph E. Paul
• Louis S. Weiss
• Simon H. Rifkind
• John F. Wharton
• Lloyd K. Garrison

See also

• List of largest law firms by profits per partner

References

1. "Paul Weiss". Law. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
2. "Paul Weiss". Law. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
3. "History of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
4. Debra Burlingame; Thomas Joscelyn (March 15, 2010). "Gitmo's Indefensible Lawyers". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
5. "Our Practice". www.paulweiss.com. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
6. Wells, Theodore V., Jr.; Karp, Brad S.; Reisner, Lorin L. (May 6, 2015). "Investigative report concerning footballs used during the AFC Championship game on January 18, 2015" (pdf). Retrieved May 8, 2015.
7. Randles, Jonathan (March 16, 2016). "Paul Weiss Missed Caesars Conflict, Examiner Says". Law360.
8. In Re China Medical Technologies, Inc., 522 B.R. 28 (2014), Leagle.com
9. Ryan, Lisa (April 30, 2015). "Paul Weiss Fights Med. Co. Liquidator’s Bid For Docs," Law360.
10. Scuria, Andrew (February 20, 2015). "Ch. 15 Liquidator Renews Push For Paul Weiss Docs," Law360.
11. "China Medical Technologies, Inc. Announces the Substantial Completion of an Independent Internal Investigation," AngloChinese Investments, July 30, 2009.
12. Coe, Abra (October 1, 2015). "Paul Weiss Must Pony Up Privileged Docs On Defunct Med Co.," Law360.
13. Michaels, Margarita (September 30, 2015) "Paul Weiss ordered to reveal privileged information from investigation on behalf of bankrupt Chinese medical company," Global Restructuring Review.
14. In Re: China Medical Technologies, Inc., Opinion and Order (S.D.N.Y. 2015).
15. "PB-By Avg Hours-2020 - Infogram". infogram.com. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
16. "The 2020 Pro Bono Scorecard: Average Hours and Commitment". The American Lawyer. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
17. Correal, Annie (November 21, 2018). "Why Big Law Is Taking On Trump Over Immigration (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
18. Correal, Annie (November 21, 2018). "Why Big Law Is Taking On Trump Over Immigration (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
19. Correal, Annie (November 21, 2018). "Why Big Law Is Taking On Trump Over Immigration (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
20. Correal, Annie (November 21, 2018). "Why Big Law Is Taking On Trump Over Immigration (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
21. Rosenberg, Rebecca (September 29, 2019). "Man wrongfully convicted of murder walks free after 24 years in jail". New York Post. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
22. "Law Firms Call for Social Justice, Despite Own Diversity Issues". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
23. "Jeh Johnson Tapped by New York Courts to Lead Racial Bias Review". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
24. July 06, ALM Staff |; AM, 2020 at 05:00. "The 2020 Pro Bono Scorecard: Average Hours and Commitment". The American Lawyer. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
25. Perkins, Christine; April 4; 2017. "Counsel for the Situation: William T. Coleman Jr. '46 (1920 – 2017)". Harvard Law Today. Retrieved December 8, 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
26. Rosenbaum, Leah. "Meet The Forgotten Woman Who Forever Changed The Lives Of LGBTQ+ Workers". Forbes. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
27. "Former Homeland Security chief heads back to N.Y.-based Paul Weiss". Bizjournals. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
28. Goldstein, Matthew (May 28, 2019). "Loretta Lynch, Former Attorney General, Is Joining a Top Law Firm Back in New York (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
29. "Ted Wells Hired to Defend N.J. Governor in Tax-Breaks Lawsuit". news.bloombergtax.com. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
30. "Paul Weiss Names More Diverse Partner Class After Past Blowback". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
31. Amir Efrati, You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution, Take II, "Wall Street Journal", October 10, 2007, https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/10/10/you-say-you-want-a-big-law-revolution-take-ii/
32. Adam Liptak, In Students’ Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don’t Make the Grade, New York Times, October 29, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/us/29bar.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=4b0cd84261ffe5b4&ei=5087%0A
33. Thomas Adcock and Zusha Elinson, Student Group Grades Firms On Diversity, Pro Bono Work, "New York Law Journal," October 19, 2007,
34. Amir Efrati, You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution, Take II, "Wall Street Journal", October 10, 2007, https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/10/10/you-say-you-want-a-big-law-revolution-take-ii/
35. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6495355575147335680/
36. Joe Patrice, Paul Weiss Press Release Captures Everything Broken About Biglaw In One Image, "Above the Law", December 11, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/12/paul-weiss-press-release-captures-everything-broken-about-biglaw-in-one-image/?rf=1
37. Noam Scheiber and John Eligon, Elite Law Firm's All-White Partner Class Stirs Debate on Diversity, "New York Times", January 27, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/us/paul-weiss-partner-diversity-law-firm.html
38. Queen, Jack (February 12, 2020). "NYU Law Students Disrupt Paul Weiss Event Over Exxon Win," Law360.
39. Pontecorvo, Emily (February 10, 2020). "Calls for law firm to #DropExxon go national with law student boycott," Grist.
40. Irfan, Umair (January 16, 2020). "The surprising protest of Exxon’s law firm at Harvard Law," Vox.
41. Schachinger, Julia (February 19, 2020). "University Law Students protest Paul, Weiss recruiting event in support of #DropExxon campaign," The Michigan Daily.