Weil, Gotshal & Manges

American law firm

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Headquarters	General Motors Building New York City, New York, United States
No. of offices	16
No. of attorneys	1,118 (2017)
Major practice areas	General practice
Key people	Barry M. Wolf, Executive Partner, Management Committee Chair^[1]
Revenue	$1.86 billion (2021)^[2]
Date founded	1931 (1931) (New York City)
Founder	Frank Weil Sylvan Gotshal Horace Manges
Company type	Limited-liability partnership
Website	weil.com

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is an American international law firm with approximately 1,100 attorneys, headquartered in New York City. With a gross annual revenue in excess of $1.8 billion, it is among the world's largest law firms according to The American Lawyer's AmLaw 100 survey.^[3]^[4]

Overview

The firm was founded in New York City in 1931 by Frank Weil, Sylvan Gotshal, and Horace Manges. Since 1968, Weil has been headquartered in the General Motors building, overlooking Central Park, in New York City's Manhattan borough.^[5]

After its founding in 1931, the firm grew steadily in the following decades, taking on clients including General Electric and General Motors, and becoming one of the largest law firms in the country.^[6] In 1975, the firm opened an office in Washington, D.C., its first outside New York City, followed in the 1980s by locations in Miami, Houston and Dallas. In 1991, the year that the internet became publicly available, Weil was the first global, non-California law firm to open a Silicon Valley office, in Redwood Shores, California. Later, the firm further spread its practice, notably in non-contentious finance and private equity practice.^[7]

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent move by Central and Eastern European countries toward market-based economies prompted the firm to launch its international expansion. It established offices in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw in the early 1990s, followed by the establishment of offices in Frankfurt, London, Munich and Paris. In the 21st century, the firm established offices in Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. As of 2012^[update], one-quarter of the firm's lawyers have practiced outside the U.S.

In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Weil, Gotshal & Manges 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."^[8]

Notable cases

Olympus Corporation's, Olympus scandal deal for British medical-equipment maker Gyrus earned Weil an undisclosed portion of the extraordinary $687 million fee; the $2 billion acquisition was the largest in Olympus's history; the fee was shared with the deal's financial advisor and its broker. The auditor KPMG refused to issue an unqualified audit report due to issues with the Gyrus deal, for which a 21-attorney Weil team was legal advisor^[9]
General Electric's $11.6 billion sale of GE Plastics to Saudi Basic Industries^[10]
DirecTV's $25 billion stock-for-stock merger with Liberty Entertainment^[11]
Sanofi Aventis's $18 billion acquisition of Genzyme^[12]
General Electric's $35 billion joint venture with Comcast for ownership of NBC Universal^[13]
Apple Inc.'s favorable settlement of litigation with Burst.com
Sears Holdings 2018 Restructuring Plan ^{[citation needed]}
CBS Corporation's successful defense against a lawsuit filed by former reporter and news anchorman Dan Rather^[14]
ExxonMobil's successful breach of contract suit against Saudi Basic Industries resulting in a $400 million jury award, one of the largest in history^{[citation needed]}
eBay's successful defense in trademark litigation with Tiffany & Co.^[15]
Enron bankruptcy^[16]
Lehman Brothers bankruptcy^[17]
Washington Mutual bankruptcy^[18]
WorldCom bankruptcy^[19]
General Motors bankruptcy^[20]
DirecTV's $49 billion sale to AT&T^[21]
Lenovo's $2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola from Google^[22]
Verizon's $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL^[23]
Intel's $16 billion acquisition of Altera^[24]
Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp^[25]
Oracle's $9 billion acquisition of NetSuite^[26]

Notable alumni

Richard Ben-Veniste, member of the 9/11 Commission
Geoff Berman, executive director of the New York State Democratic Committee
Adam Bodnar, former Polish Ombudsman for Citizen Rights and current Minister of Justice
Jason Boyarski, music industry lawyer
Vernon S. Broderick, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Robert B. Charles, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Greg Coleman, first Solicitor General of Texas
Gregg Costa, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Christopher Nixon Cox, grandson of Richard Nixon
Mekka Don, rapper
Barry Eisler, novelist, creator of John Rain novels
Michael Francies, managing partner of the firm's London office
Jill M. Friedman, who represented Guantanamo Bay detention camp prisoners, author of The Saudi Repatriates Report
Martin D. Ginsburg, lawyer, husband of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Sylvan Gotshal, founding partner
Lawrence Otis Graham, best-selling author
Caitlin Halligan, former Solicitor General of New York
George J. Hazel, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
Melinda Katz, Queens County District Attorney
Jeffrey L. Kessler, noted sports industry lawyer
Horace Manges, founding partner
Harvey R. Miller, Vice Chairman of Greenhill & Co.
Ira Millstein, current partner at the firm, longest-practicing partner in big law
Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, associate justice of the Delaware Supreme Court
Raymond Nimmer, former dean of the University of Houston Law Center
Robert Odle, Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Energy under Ronald Reagan
Harriet Pilpel, women's rights activist
John A. E. Pottow, professor at the University of Michigan Law School
Rob Simmelkjaer, television journalist and executive
Stanley Sporkin, senior judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Robert R. Summerhays, judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
Theodore Tannenwald Jr., judge of the United States Tax Court
Heath Tarbert, former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Suzanne Israel Tufts, Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
Frank Weil, founding partner

References

^ "Barry M. Wolf - Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP".
^ Patrick Smith (March 31, 2022). "Weil Rides Balance to Double-Digit Revenue, Net Income Growth in 2021". The American Lawyer (via Law.com). Retrieved August 30, 2022.
^ ^{[dead link]} "2005 The National Law Journal 250". The National Law Journal. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Staff (July 1, 2005). "The Am Law 100: The Billion-Dollar Club Expands" (Abstract). The American Lawyer (via Law.com). Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ "Weil | Company Profile | Vault.com". Vault. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
^ "Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP - The Inside View". www.chambers-associate.com. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
^ "Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, USA | Chambers Profiles". chambers.com. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
^ 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.
^ Staff (October 27, 2011). "Additional Information on Our Previous Acquisition Deals" (PDF format). Olympus Corporation. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Layne, Rachel; Cronin, Sean (May 21, 2007). "Saudi Basic to Buy GE Plastics Unit for $11.6 Billion (Update 5)". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Nolter, Chris (May 15, 2009). "Malone's Fancy Turns to Tax-Free Spinoffs". The Deal. Archived from the original on November 26, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Nicholson, Chris V. (February 16, 2011). "Sanofi Agrees to Buy Genzyme for $20.1 Billion". DealBook (blog of The New York Times). Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Shields, Todd; Bliss, Jeff (January 18, 2011). "Comcast Wins U.S. Approval to Buy NBC Universal From GE for $13.8 Billion". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Reagan, Gillian (January 12, 2010). "Dan Rather's $70 Million Lawsuit Against CBS Finally Dies". Business Insider. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
^ Jones, Ashby (April 1, 2010). "Second Circuit Rules for eBay in Counterfeit Goods Case". Law Blog (blog of The Wall Street Journal). Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^ Glater, Jonathan D. (December 4, 2001). "Enron's Collapse: The Lawyers; And the Winners in the Case Are". The New York Times.
^ Glater, Jonathan D. (December 13, 2008). "The Man Who Is Unwinding Lehman Brothers". The New York Times.
^ Chasan, Emily (September 28, 2008). "WaMu Files Bankruptcy Petition in Delaware". Forbes.^{[dead link]}
^ Schmitt, Richard (July 23, 2002). "Recent Bankruptcy Filings Become A Field of Gold for Weil Gotshal". Wall Street Journal.
^ Sandler, Lisa (June 1, 2009). "GM Files Bankruptcy to Spin Off More Competitive Firm". Bloomberg.
^ Chiem, Linda (June 24, 2014). "Sealing The Deal: Weil Steers DirecTV In $49B Sale To AT&T". LexisNexis.
^ Mahoney, Brian (January 14, 2014). "Law360's Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs". LexisNexis.
^ Mahoney, Brian (May 12, 2015). "Verizon to buy AOL in $4.4 billion mobile video push". Reuters.
^ King, Ian (June 1, 2015). "Intel's $16.7 Billion Altera Deal Is Fueled by Data Centers". Bloomberg.
^ Rosen, Ellen (February 21, 2014). "Weil Advises Facebook as WhatsApp Uses Fenwick: Business of Law". Bloomberg.
^ Greene, Jay (July 28, 2016). "Oracle to Buy Cloud-Software Provider NetSuite for $9.3 Billion". Wall Street Journal.

External links

Official website
Weil, Gotshal & Manges companies grouped at OpenCorporates
Chambers and Partners firm profile Archived March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine