Back in July, we noted that “There Are Cliques in BigLaw, Too” when seven firms (Cravath, Davis Polk, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Wachtell) collaborated on a comment letter to the SEC about shareholder-access rules.
This time around, the firms are getting all “We Are the World” and ganging up on the New York legislature.
51 of New York’s finest issued a white paper, “Interpretive Issues Related to Recent Changes to the New York Power of Attorney Law.”
A summary of the white paper (boring) and the firms included and excluded (interesting) after the jump (plus we learn something new about a firm’s organizational status).
According to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, the white paper
examines principles of New York and federal law to reach a finding that, at the least, substantial portions of the recently amended New York General Obligations Law §§ 5-1501 et seq. (the “Statute”) do not apply to proxies for shares of New York corporations and non-New York corporations, certain powers of attorney executed in connection with the registration of transfer of certificated securities or many powers of attorney granted in connection with the formation and governance of non-New York limited liability companies and non-New York limited partnerships.
They felt the need to issue the paper because they think there is some ambiguity, which they want the legislature to clear up.
As for the firms (which you’ll note right off the bat includes the original batch of mean girls):
| Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Bryan Cave LLP Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP Chadbourne & Parke LLP Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP Clifford Chance US LLP Covington & Burling LLP Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Dechert LLP Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP Dickstein Shapiro LLP DLA Piper US LLP Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Goodwin Procter LLP Greenberg Traurig LLP Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP Jones Day Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Kaye Scholer LLP Kelley Drye & Warren LLP King & Spalding LLP |
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP Latham & Watkins LLP Mayer Brown LLP Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP O’Melveny & Myers LLP Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP Ropes & Gray LLP Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP Shearman & Sterling LLP Sidley Austin LLP Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP White & Case LLP Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Winston & Strawn LLP |
That’s half the AmLaw 100. We’re all for inclusion, but they could have been a little more selective.
Going through it alphabetically, we see all kinds of firms that could have been left out. Akin Gump is a Texas firm. Bryan Cave is from freaking St. Louis. Talk about flyover land. Clifford Chance isn’t even American (yes, we know they acquired Rogers & Wells) and neither is DLA Piper (notwithstanding the fact that the US operations are a separate legal entity that report separate financial statements and are on separate compensation schedules – if the non-American firm’s name comes first, it’s not an American firm).
Then there’s a bunch of firms from Acela stops: Covington (DC), Dechert (Philly), Dickstein Shapiro (DC), Edwards Angell (Boston), Goodwin Procter (Boston), Morgan Lewis (Philly), Ropes & Gray (Boston), and Wilmer (DC).
We don’t even know if Acela goes as far as Miami, which is where Greenberg Traurig is from, but we’ve heard there’s some sort of car-carrying train you can take that way. Jones Day is from yet-another flyover city, Cleveland. If you’re going to be from the heartland, at least be from Chicago, like Katten Muchen, Kirkland, Mayer Brown, and Sidley are. King & Spalding is from Atlanta.
Latham is at least arguable: it’s a California firm at heart, but its largest office is in New York. Gibson Dunn, O’Melveny, Paul Hastings, Quinn Emanuel, are just California, even if they’ve got reasonably large NY presences.
So cut out the non-NY firms and you’re down to 27 firms.
But there are also a few firms that seem to be missing.
Proskauer is the obvious omission.
Then there are some others that could have made the list. For example, Curtis Mallet-Prevost & Mosle and Seward & Kissel, and Carter Ledyard are very old, very New York firms, despite the low-key reputations.
Who else got left out and who asked all those non-NY firms to weigh in?
And like we said last time, Wachtell should be at the top of the list because its partners are on the hook for unlimited personal liability, as the firm is still a general partnership.
Surprisingly, they should be joined by Jones Day, which is also a general partnership! Who knew?
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