Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, commonly known as Willkie, is a white-shoe, internationallaw firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1888, the firm specializes in corporate practice and employs approximately 1200 lawyers in 15 offices across six countries.
Two partners have served as American Bar Association President. The first was Charles A. Boston (who became an associate at the firm in 1901 when it was Hornblower, Byrne, Miller & Potter) in 1930–31. He was followed by Harold J. Gallagher (who initially joined the firm in 1917 when it was Hornblower, Miller & Garrison) in 1949–50.[6][7][8]
In 1931, the firm merged with the law firm of Miller, Otis and Farr. At that point, in total the firm had 12 partners and 24 associates, making it one of New York's larger firms.[4] In 1939, the firm hired its first female associate, Mary MacDonagh.[6]
In January 1940 Harold J. Gallagher, one of the most influential partners in the history of the firm,[6] extended an offer to Wendell Willkie to join the firm then known as Miller, Boston & Owen. This was several months before Willkie received the Republican nomination for president.[9] After losing the presidential election to the incumbent FDR, Willkie joined the firm and became a partner in 1941.[10] The firm's name was changed a year later to Willkie, Owen, Otis & Bailly, and later to Willkie, Owen, Otis, Farr & Gallagher.[11] Willkie later became F.D.R.'s personal envoy to many countries, promoting the Lend-Lease program. He later wrote a book about his travels entitled One World, a plea for global cooperation and peacekeeping.[12] In 1947, his estate's interest in the law firm was valued at $125,000 ($1,706,000 in current dollar terms).[13] That year, the customary hourly rate of a Willkie partner was $50 ($700 in current dollar terms) an hour.[14]
Throughout the 1960s, Gallagher-lead Willkie was occupied with railroad reorganizations, setting the stage for the firm's emergence as a bankruptcy powerhouse. In 1968 the firm adopted its current name, Willkie Farr & Gallagher.[4] From 1969 to 1995, Bob Hodes was the chairman of the firm.[16] In 1977, Patricia S. Skigen became the firm's first female partner.[6] That year, the firm moved to One Citicorp Center.[4]
In 1993 Willkie suffered a precipitous drop in business when Shearson Lehman, which accounted for one-third of Willkie Farr billings, was sold to The Travelers Companies.[17][18] The firm consequently adopted a policy that no client would account for more than five percent of its business.
In 1994, corporate partner Nora Ann Wallace became the first female member of the firm's executive committee.[6] Beginning in 1995, and for the next two decades, Mario Cuomo (the former 52ndGovernor of New York) was of counsel at Willkie Farr.[19]
In 2003, carbon monoxide and smoke inhalation from a fire at a historic bed-and-breakfast in Charlottesville, Virginia, where members of the firm were staying on a recruiting trip, killed Willkie recruiting coordinators Trish Langlade and Billie Kelly.[20][21][22]
In 2007, Willkie announced a strategic alliance with Dickson Minto, a boutique law firm with offices in London and Edinburgh that specializes in private equity, with both continuing to operate independently of each other.[23] Willkie was recognized in 2015 as being in 'Band 1' (the top ranking) on the national scale for its work in eight practice areas according to Chambers & Partners.[24]
In 2019, Gordon Caplan, then co-chairman of the firm,[25] named 2018 “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer,[26] was indicted as a parent participant in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud; the firm placed him on indefinite leave the next day.[27][28][29][30][31] A felony guilty plea deal was filed in March 2019, and he was sentenced to one month in prison.[32][33]
The American Lawyer ranked Willkie Farr 47th in gross revenue, with $772 million in 2017, and in the 2018 Global 200 survey it was ranked the 57th-highest-grossing law firm in the world.[34] It had 145 equity partners, and its profits per equity partner were $2.97 million, 17th-highest in the nation.[35][36] In size, it was ranked the 68th-largest law firm in the United States.[34]
In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Willkie Farr & Gallagher 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."[37]
Roberta Karmel – first female SEC Commissioner, Centennial Professor of Law & Co-Director, Center for the Study of International Business Law, Brooklyn Law School[41]
The firm has 1,200 lawyers, in 15 offices in six countries (including offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris (created in 1921), London, Rome, Milan, Munich, Frankfurt, and Brussels).[4]
^Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; Merced, Michael J. de la; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (2 November 2023). "Law Firms Warn Universities About Antisemitism on Campus". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
