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Latham & Watkins LLP

No. of offices	28
No. of attorneys	3,078
No. of employees	≈7,000
Major practice areas	General corporate, mergers & acquisitions, banking and finance, litigation, antitrust
Key people	Richard Trobman, Chair and Managing Partner
Revenue	US$5.5 billion (March 2022)
Date founded	February 8, 1934; 90 years ago (1934-02-08)
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	www.lw.com

Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2022, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with profits per partner exceeding US$5.7 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 federal tax law, and he eventually served as Commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service 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.

As of 2020, 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.

At one time Latham & Watkins was considered to be the world's largest law firm by total revenue when, in February 2018, it surpassed $3 billion in annual revenue.

As of February 2021, 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. As of 2018, it was briefly the highest-grossing law firm in the world, but has since lost the number one spot to Kirkland & Ellis.

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. Latham ended its Russia operations in March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In August 2023, Latham announced the decision to close its Shanghai office amid consolidation of its operations in China.

In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Latham & Watkins was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter said "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses." The letter has been denounced by a coalition of Muslim bar associations as contributing to Islamophobia and a climate of fear in the legal community.

In February 2024, Latham cut off its Hong Kong-based lawyers' access to content in its U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Asia databases.

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. Dubbed an "A-List All-Star" by The American Lawyer, the firm is one of three firms to appear on the A-List each year since its inception in 2003. 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 clients and cases

• Ardshinbank in its acquisition of HSBC Armenia.
• Relentless, Inc. in Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, a landmark decision which overruled the principle of Chevron deference established in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc..

Notable attorneys and alumni

Government

• Carla Anderson Hills – United States Trade Representative, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division
• Sean M. Berkowitz – Federal prosecutor in the trials of Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Also defended Lori Loughlin in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
• Leslie R. Caldwell – Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2014 to 2017.
• Michael Chertoff – Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
• Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon
• Roderick M. Hills – Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Dana Latham – Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
• Jonathan Lippman – Former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.
• Philip Perry – Former associate attorney general, former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, and former general counsel of Department of Homeland Security.
• Kathryn Ruemmler – Former White House Counsel to President Barack Obama and federal prosecutor in the trials of Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.
• Andrew H. Warren – State Attorney of Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County (2017–22)

Media and entertainment

• Brett Oppenheim – Reality TV star of Netflix's hit show, Selling Sunset. Owner of Oppenheim Real Estate.

See also

• List of largest law firms by revenue
• List of largest law firms by profits per partner

References

1. ^ "Latham". Law.com. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
2. "Latham & Watkins LLP". Retrieved March 7, 2022.
3. Latham.com (Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine), retrieved May 19, 2010.
4. "Most Firms Are Failing the Climate Change Test, Law Student Group Concludes". Law.com. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
5. "The 2020 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard" (PDF). 2020.
6. Haynes, V. Dion (February 28, 2009). "Latham & Watkins Cuts 190 Lawyers". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
7. Mystal, Elie (June 14, 2010). "How Did Latham Become the Poster Child for Layoffs?". Above the Law. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
8. "Latham & Watkins – What The Lawyer Says". The Lawyer. Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs. April 10, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
9. "Latham & Watkins LLP - Global Directory - New York". Lw.com.
10. "Legal Technology Journal" (PDF). Lw.com. April 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
11. Jones, Ashby (February 11, 2008). "Latham & Watkins Breaks $2 Billion Revenue Barrier". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
12. Strom, Roy (February 22, 2018). "Latham & Watkins Makes History with $3 Billion in Revenue". Law.com. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
13. "Latham & Watkins LLP". Law.com. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
14. "Kirkland Overtakes Latham as World's Biggest Firm by Revenue". The American Lawyer. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
15. Rubino, Kathryn. "Behold: The First Firm to Crack $3 Billion In Revenue". Above the Law. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
16. "Here Are the Biggest Legal Advisers to Russia's Major State-Owned Companies". Law.com International. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
17. Binham, Caroline; Rovnick, Naomi; Thompson, Barney (May 31, 2018). "London law firms feel chill from icy relations with Russia". Financial Times. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
18. "Latham & Watkins, Morgan Lewis Latest to Shut Russia Operations". Law.com International. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
19. "Latest US Law Firm Shrinks China Presence as Latham Closes in Shanghai". Law.com International. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
20. "Foreign law firms scale back China operations as outlook dims". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
21. Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; Merced, Michael J. de la; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (November 2, 2023). "Law Firms Warn Universities About Antisemitism on Campus". The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
22. Egan, Matt (November 14, 2023). "Law firms accused of fueling Islamophobia and chilling free speech". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
23. "Latham & Watkins cuts off its Hong Kong lawyers from international databases". www.ft.com. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
24. "Latham's China Data Protection Move Shows Firms' Security Worry". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
25. Lat, David (April 27, 2017). "The 2017 Am Law 100: A Turning Point For Biglaw?". Abovethelaw.com.
26. "Latham & Watkins LLP - About Us - Awards & Rankings - Latham Tops the Rankings in Chambers USA 2021 Guide". Lw.com. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
27. "Latham & Watkins LLP-Company Profile-Vault.com". Vault.com.
28. "Latham & Watkins | Company Profile". Firsthand.co. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
29. "Latham Advises Ardshinbank on Acquisition of HSBC Armenia". February 26, 2024. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
30. "Latham Wins Historic US Supreme Court Decision Overturning Chevron Deference". June 28, 2024. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
31. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/hrg101-52.pdf
32. "Loughlin, Giannulli lawyer is prosecutors' 'worst nightmare'". Apnews.com. April 20, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
33. "Former Enron Prosecutor Leslie Caldwell to Join Latham & Watkin". New York Times. June 21, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
34. "Charles Courtenay, Latham & Watkins". Law360.com. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
35. https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Hillsbio0802.pdf
36. "Dana Latham, 75, Former Head Of the Internal Revenue, Is Dead (Published 1974)". The New York Times. February 9, 1974. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
37. "Judge Jonathan Lippman | Latham & Watkins LLP". www.lw.com. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
38. "Homeland Security". Archived from the original on October 10, 2006. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
39. "Latham & Watkins LLP". Lw.com.
40. Sullivan, Dan (November 10, 2020). "Who is this guy? How Andrew Warren became the face of criminal justice in Tampa". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
41. "About Brett Oppenheim". Oppenheim Real Estate. Retrieved June 10, 2023.

External links

• Official website

• Latham & 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
• Multinational law firms