Coudert Brothers

Coudert Brothers LLP

Headquarters	New York City
No. of offices	28
No. of attorneys	650
Major practice areas	General practice
Revenue	—
Date founded	1853 (New York City)
Founder	Frederic René Coudert Sr. Charles Coudert Jr. Louis Leonce Coudert
Company type	Defunct
Dissolved	2006
Website	Defunct

Coudert Brothers LLP was a New York–based law firm with a strong international outlook that practiced from 1853 until its dissolution in 2006.

History

The firm was established in 1853 in New York by three sons of Charles Coudert Sr.: Frederic René Coudert Sr., Charles Coudert Jr., and Louis Leonce Coudert, and specialized in international law.^[1]

The firm represented private investors seeking to acquire rights to build the Panama Canal; French automotive and tire manufacturers opening plants in the U.S.; the governments of Russia, France, and Great Britain in the buildup to World War I; and Ford Motor Company and a group of foreign car manufacturers in the successful appeal of the Selden Patent Case, ending the attempted monopolization of the automotive industry. The firm prospered under three generations of family control, expanding from its start in New York City to 28 offices worldwide, including Paris, London, Moscow, Sydney, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Shanghai. Coudert partners dealt with financiers, presidents, and ambassadors in settling cases of corporate ownership worldwide, acting as confidential facilitators of Allied arms buying in World War I, and as interventionist supporters in World War II.

In 1986, Coudert Brothers hired

Baker & McKenzie. Many of Coudert's offices were relatively costly, unproductive, and conservative in billing, which made their profits (and therefore the income of their partner attorneys) weaker than other firms. The firm also had redundant offices, such as three offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and a generalist approach that competed poorly with more specialized practices of other firms.^[5]

On September 22, 2006, Coudert Brothers filed for

fraudulent transfers.^[6] As of 2016, litigation concerning the acquisition by Orrick of Coudert's Chinese offices was still ongoing, leading one judge to dub Coudert "the longest-lived dead law firm in the Western World."^[4]

Notable mandates

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• Represented international investors in the 2005 sale of a 93.5% stake in the Grand Hotel Europe in
  St. Petersburg, Russia by Orient Express Hotels Ltd. which was to invest $125 million to refurbish the hotel over the next three years. Debt to finance the transaction was provided by the International Finance Corporation
  .
• Counseled South Korea–based
  underwriters
  .
• Legal adviser, through its Sydney branch, to
  Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners
  (now CHAMP Private Equity House) in its sale through a A$110 million secondary buy-out for Penrice Soda Products in 2004.
• Counseled
  Merck on its sale of its VWR International division to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
  for $1.68 billion in 2004.
• Advised the
  underwriters in the HK$668 million IPO of the Lianhua Supermarket Holding Co. on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
  in 2003.
• Through its Moscow office, the firm represented the Russian Federal Property Fund as selling shareholder in the $750 million sale of stock in Lukoil in 2002.

Notable attorneys

• Gary Hart
• NYU Law School

See also

• Frederic René Coudert Sr.

Notes

1. ISBN 0-525-93585-1
   , p. 26.
2. ^ "Oldest Law Firm Is Courtly, Loyal and Defunct" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
3. ^ Law.com - Coudert Breakup Voted After Merger Talks Fail
4. ^ ^{a b} Brush, Pete (February 17, 2016). "Orrick Cuts Deal In Spat With 'Longest-Lived Dead Law Firm'". Law360. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
5. ^ Glater, Jonathan D. (30 August 2005). "Law Firm That Opened Borders Is Closing Up Shop". New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
6. ^ Rosen, Ellen (2007-02-09). "The Complicated End of an Ex-law Firm". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-05.

External links

• History of the firm and picture of the brothers
• Coudert Brothers, of New York City, and Coudert Fréres, of Paris (2005). "France Law Digest". Martindale Hubbell International Law Digest, Argentina-Vietnam Law Digests; Selected International Conventions; US Uniform Acts (137th year ed.). New Providence, NJ and London, England: Reed Elsevier Inc.
  ISBN 1-56160-649-9. Retrieved November 10, 2018 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )