BigLaw dominates the National Law Journal’s list of the decade’s most-influential lawyers.
At least 26 are currently employed by top firms and many more have worked at top firms previously or otherwise have close ties.
Over the next week (or for as long as we can keep interested), we’ll be breaking down the list by group and providing the inside scoop.
Previously, we’ve covered bankruptcy and antitrust. Today, we turn to corporate.
The honorees:
CORPORATE
♦ H. Rodgin Cohen, Sullivan & Cromwell
♦ Edward Herlihy, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
♦ Jeffrey Rosen, Debevoise & Plimpton
Cohen is easy, because he was the subject of a lengthy writeup in the Times last year, which was a reprise of a prescient profile all the way back in 1989, when he was 45. The Times gives us: the “H” is for Henry. (1) He was born in West Virginia (2), which doesn’t have a baseball team, so perhaps he’s excused for one of the most appalling (and cliche) behaviors in fandom: going to Mssachusetts for school (Cohen was indoctrinated earlier than most – Deerfield for prep school (3), then Harvard for undergrad and law) and becoming a Red Sox fan (4). His wife, Barbara, is from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which is not “not far” from Minneapolis (5) (the Times had to do a correction to clarify whether a 200-mile drive is “not far” – read all the way to the end).
More esoteric: he has “an encyclopedic knowledge of 1950s rock music (6),” according to a Financial Times profile that predates the most-recent banking crisis.
Herlihy is another guy who has had plenty of mainstream press. Even more so than Cohen, Herlihy’s award is really an acknowledgment of his firm’s accomplishments. Otherwise, the list would have been filled with Wachtell lawyers, starting with the eponymous Marty Lipton, who is getting up there in years but was certainly busy over the past decade. Guys like Adam Emmerich, David Katz (not the Katz on the letterhead), Dan Neff, and would also have to be considered.
But back to Ed. He spent nearly every Labor Day in the late 1990s working on acquisitions for Bank of America. (6) He is a member of Deepdale Golf Club on Long Island. (7) We know this, because he got his firm to defend the club against a post-Kelso condemnation case (which Peter Lattman called “The Best Eminent Domain Case Ever!“). (8) Deepdale is in Herlihy’s hometown of North Hills, which is the wealthiest community in the Northeast (according to him). (9)
Herlihy and Cohen were both quoted way back in 1990 on the impending collapse of the Bank of New England. (10)
Finally, we have Rosen. No offense to him, but his inclusion was kind of a headscratcher. He has certainly done more than a fair share of big-ticket deals, like NBC Universal, Verizon, and International Paper, as the NLJ mentions. He’s just not usually top of mind for this kind of list. He’d certainly make a top 10, and maybe even a top 5 if we were doing it.
Nonetheless, there he is, so here’s what we can offer: his client, Verizon Wireless, reached an agreement in principle to acquire Alltell while he was stuck on the runway at LaGuardia. (11) He “made a nuisance of [himself]” to get off the plane and rush back to the office. (12)
Cohen and Rosen are two of the 10 Harvard Law graduates to make the NLJ’s lists. (13)
Omissions? This was the easiest category for us to think of notable names that don’t appear.
The Wachtell guys listed above.
Cadwalader’s Dennis Block and his $250 billion (give or take) in pharma deals alone.
Any number of people from Cravath, starting with the late great Bob Joffe. Business Insider’s Law Review did a list of the firm’s most-powerful partners, many of whom would have been nice additions. Especially Faiza Saeed, who could have made a nice distaff addition.
Gar Bason from Davis Polk.
Art Fleischer from Fried Frank.
S&C guys like Aquila.
Anyone from Simpson Thacher, Skadden, or Latham.
Who else?
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Yeah, when I saw the list I really got the sense that it was mistitled: these are the top guys in the news lately, not the top lawyers of the decade, and the list therefore skews toward FIG dealmakers. Had it been written 2-3 years ago, you can bet there would have been someone from STB on there, somebody from Skadden, etc. But now that plain old LBOs have faded from the memory, only quasi-governmental highly regulated deals are cool.
Herlihy is going to make the list no matter when it's done, if for no reason other than NLJ's – he's a figurehead for all of Wachtell. Cohen's stock has definitely shot up the last 18-24 months. He may or may not make a list of the top 3 if it was done 2+ years ago. Rosen must have a hell of a publicist or something. Block is a pretty bad omission, although we wouldn't be too surprised if he had pissed someone off somewhere along the way and they kept him off the list out of spite (but to be fair, he has supposedly toned it down over the past couple of years)
Yeah, when I saw the list I really got the sense that it was mistitled: these are the top guys in the news lately, not the top lawyers of the decade, and the list therefore skews toward FIG dealmakers. Had it been written 2-3 years ago, you can bet there would have been someone from STB on there, somebody from Skadden, etc. But now that plain old LBOs have faded from the memory, only quasi-governmental highly regulated deals are cool.
Herlihy is going to make the list no matter when it's done, if for no reason other than NLJ's – he's a figurehead for all of Wachtell. Cohen's stock has definitely shot up the last 18-24 months. He may or may not make a list of the top 3 if it was done 2+ years ago. Rosen must have a hell of a publicist or something. Block is a pretty bad omission, although we wouldn't be too surprised if he had pissed someone off somewhere along the way and they kept him off the list out of spite (but to be fair, he has supposedly toned it down over the past couple of years)
Oh, also, you should check out Investment Dealer's Digest's latest issue (40 under 40). Lots of lawyers turned bankers and other tie-ins.
Oh, also, you should check out Investment Dealer's Digest's latest issue (40 under 40). Lots of lawyers turned bankers and other tie-ins.
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