White-shoe firm
In the United States, a white-shoe firm is a term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have been traditionally associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term is most often used to describe leading old-line law firms and Wall Street financial institutions, as well as accounting firms that are over a century old, typically in New York City and Boston.[1]
Former
Etymology
The phrase derives from "
Usage
The term originated in
Examples
The following U.S. firms are often referred to as being white-shoe firms:
Accountancy
The current
- Touche Ross)
- Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young)
- KPMG (formerly Peat Marwick Mitchell)
- Coopers & Lybrand)
The only former Big Eight firm not merged into one of the Big Four was Arthur Andersen, which went out of business in 2002 after the Enron scandal.
Banking
- Traditional
- Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
- Dillon, Read & Co. (acquired by UBS in 1998)
- First Boston (acquired by Credit Suisse in 1990)
- Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (merged with Lehman Brothers in 1977)
- J.P. Morgan & Co.[15][16] (merged with Chase Manhattan in 1996, and became JPMorgan Chase in 2000)
- Morgan Stanley[17]
- Merrill Lynchin 1978)
- Modern
- Barclays
- Citigroup
- Goldman Sachs[18]
- JPMorgan Chase[19]
- Lazard Frères & Co.[20]
- UBS[21]
Management consultancies
The Big Three (management consultancies), colloquially known as ‘’‘MBB’’’, consisting of the largest management consulting firms by revenue:
Law
- Traditional
- Arnold & Porter[22]
- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft[23]
- Covington & Burling[24]
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore[25]
- Davis Polk & Wardwell[26]
- Debevoise & Plimpton[27]
- Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy[28]
- Ropes & Gray[29]
- Shearman & Sterling[30]
- Sidley Austin[31][32]
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett[33]
- Sullivan & Cromwell[34]
- White & Case[35]
- Willkie Farr & Gallagher[36]
- Modern
While the term "white-shoe" historically applied only to those law firms populated by
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld[40]
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel[41]
- Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton[42]
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson[43]
- King & Spalding[44][45][46]
- Latham & Watkins
- Paul Hastings
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison[47][48]
- Proskauer Rose[49][50][51]
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan[52]
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom[53][54]
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz[55]
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges[56][57][58]
Equivalent law firms outside the United States
- Australia
- Big Six: In 2012, three of these firms merged with overseas firms, and one other began operating in association with an overseas firm. As a consequence, it has proposed that the term is no longer applicable to the Australian legal profession, displaced by the concept of Global Elite law firms or International Business law firms.[59]
- Brazil
- Grandes Firmas: Pinheiro Neto Advogados: Mattos Filho Advogados : Machado Meyer Advogados: Tozzini Freire Advogados: Veirano Advogados
- Canada
- Seven Sisters
- China (People's Republic)
- Red Circle, coined by The Lawyer magazine in 2014.[60]
- Japan
- Big Four
- South Africa
- Big Five
- Singapore
- Big Four
- United Kingdom (centered on the City of London)
- Magic Circle, firms with the largest revenues, the most international work and which generally outperform the rest of the London market on profitability.
- Silver Circle, the next tier below the Magic Circle (there is no Golden Circle[61]) has firms smaller than those in the Magic Circle, though sometimes with similar level of profits per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer.[62][63][64]
References
- ^ Safire, William (Nov 9, 1997). "On Language; Gimme the Ol' White Shoe". Retrieved Sep 2, 2021 – via NYTimes.com.
- ISBN 9781524743253
- ^ Safire, William (November 9, 1997). "On Language; Gimme the Ol' White Shoe". New York Times.
- ^ Chensvold, Christian. "Russell Lynes On The Shoe Hierarchy, Esquire 1953". Ivy Style. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
- ^ a b c Chambliss, Elizabeth (2005). "THE SHOE STILL FITS". Legal Affairs. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
- ^ Chensvold, Christian. "How The White-Shoe Law Firm Got Its Name". Ivy Style. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ^ "New Jersey State Bar Journal". New Jersey State Bar Association. June 25, 1957 – via Google Books.
- ^ Stelzer, Irwin M. (February 8, 2016). "Remembering the 'White-Shoe Firm'". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
- ^ "white-shoe". WordNet. Princeton University.
- ISBN 9780826416438– via Google Books.
- ^ "President Trump's reference to 'paddy wagon' insults Irish Americans like me". The Washington Post. 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ^ "Italian Americans: The Progressive Tradition-Reflections on Gerald Meyer's Presentation at the New Haven Public Library". March 20, 2021.
- ^ "Raise a St. Patrick's Day glass to 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the greatest Irish American". Washington Examiner. March 17, 2020.
- ^ "Frozen-term watch: "white-shoe"". The Economist. September 3, 2010. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
- ^ Surowiecki, James (1998-06-15). "White-Shoe Shuffle". New York. New York Media LLC. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
- McGraw-Hill Education. Archived from the originalon February 13, 2002. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
- ^ "Morgan Stanley's 'white-shoe' dissidents continue war of attrition". Finfacts Ireland. April 17, 2005.
- ^ Creswell, Julie; White, Ben (27 September 2008). "Wall Street, R.I.P.: The End of an Era, Even at Goldman". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ Kenton, Will. "White Shoe Firm". Investopedia. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
- ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (December 11, 2005). "They're All Paying Customers to Wall Street". The New York Times.
- ^ Creswell, Julie; White, Ben (27 September 2008). "Wall Street, R.I.P.: The End of an Era, Even at Goldman". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ "2017 Power 100 Law Firm Rankings". Above the Law. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ^ Stracher, Cameron (March 24, 2000). "The Law Firm's New Clothes". New York Times.
- ^ Rost, Peter (September 12, 2007). "Covington & Burling, a Pfizer law firm, caught cleaning up its reputation on Wikipedia". BrandweekNRX.
- ^ Martinez, Jose (March 3, 2006). "Shoes are whiter than most in city". NY Daily News. New York.
- ^ Moyer, Elizabeth (October 26, 2005). "Dimon Woos Mergers Lawyer Hersch To JPMorgan". Forbes.com.
- ^ Labaton, Stephen (September 24, 1989). "Rainmaker: Mario Baeza of Debevoise". The New York Times.
- ^ Weiss, Gary (March 4, 2002). "Commentary: Et Tu, Enron Lawyers?". Businessweek. Archived from the original on April 16, 2002.
- ^ Qualters, Sheri (August 29, 2007). "Humor Helps the Firm Go Video". The National Law Journal.
- ^ "Top Law Schols". New York. April 2011.
- ^ Nelson, Katie (November 2, 2009). "NY Daily News". New York.
- ^ "Chicago Tribune". November 11, 2009.
- ISBN 9781524743277.
- ^ Schneider-Mayerson, Anna (February 18, 2007). "Associate Gets Crushed Beneath White Shoe". New York Observer. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008.
- ^ "History of White & Case LLP – FundingUniverse". Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Morgan, Spencer (April 7, 2009). "Andy Spade Is a Giant in New York". New York Observer. Archived from the original on April 10, 2009.
- ^ van der Pool, Lisa (July 1, 2011). "Bill Lee: Still making his case". Boston Business Journal.
- ^ Hawkins, Asher (June 28, 2010). "SEC's Revolving Door Often Spins More Than Once". Forbes.
- ^ "Caroline Ellison Hires SEC's Former Top Crypto Cop for FTX probe". 10 December 2022 – via www.bloomberg.com.
- ^ Tau, Bryon (July 21, 2014). "Akin Gump now largest lobbying firm". POLITICO. Washington.
- ^ Gendar, Alison (September 14, 2009). "Straight-shooter judge could break up Junior Gotti's perfect game". NY Daily News. New York.
- ^ Rubinstein, Dana (July 24, 2008). "It's Complicated: Insurance Firm Spills Space Gobbled by Former UBS President, Cleary Gottlieb". New York Observer. Archived from the original on August 4, 2008.
- ^ Gray, Geoffrey (December 15, 2003). "Charity Busters". City Limits.
- ^ Auchterlonie, Tom (February 1, 2023). "King & Spalding alum returns to the firm's private funds practice". Private Funds CFO. Private Equity International. Archived from the original on 23 March 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
- ^ "Rod J. Rosenstein". kslaw.com. King & Spalding LLP. Archived from the original on 16 January 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
- ^ Hobbs, Meredith (April 7, 2008). "Daily Report Dozen: King & Spalding". Daily Report. ALM Global, LLC. Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
- ^ Gertner, Jon (January 15, 2006). "What Is a Living Wage?". New York Times.
- ^ Stull, Elizabeth (May 23, 2007). "Gay Couple Sues Landlord for Discrimination". Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
- ^ "Business - Minding your MANNERS". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. June 9, 2002.
- ^ Lin, Anthony (May 16, 2006). "Can the 'Jewish Law Firm' Success Story Be Duplicated?". New York Law Journal.
- ^ Donohue, Pete (December 11, 2005). "MTA Pays Big Shots To Fight A Strike". NY Daily News. New York.
- ^ ANN W., ANN W. (September 24, 2000). "He May Have Played a Lawyer on TV, but Nanny Produced the Brief". LA Times.
- ^ Mainland, Alexis; Goodman, J. David; Iaboni, Lisa; Vega, Tanzina; Dance, Gabriel; Han, Rebecca (March 10, 2008). "Milestones in an Ambitious Career: 1992". New York Times.
- ^ "Girl Trouble". New York Magazine. October 16, 2000.
- ^ Weiss, Debra Cassens (August 19, 2009). "Wachtell Nabs Top Spot Again In Prestige Rankings". ABA Journal.
- ^ Belkin, Lisa (January 24, 2008). "Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms". New York Times.
- ^ Sargent, Greg (September–October 2005). "The Ricochet". Mother Jones.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Patrick (March 13, 2009). "SunCal Lawyer Whacks Weil". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Beaton Research & Consulting (2012). An obituary for the term "Big 6" law firms in Australia Archived 2012-11-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
- ^ "Elite 'red circle' firms Zhong Lun and Jun He plot merger as consolidation grips China legal market | The Lawyer | Legal News and Jobs | Advancing the business of law". www.thelawyer.com. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
- ^ "The silver circle". Chambers Student Guide.
- ^ "Ashurst, Herbies ride out tough year; BLP, Macfarlanes, SJ Berwin succumb". The Lawyer. 14 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
- ^ "Silver Circle". The Lawyer. 3 September 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
- ^ Fletcher, Martin (28 August 2005). "'Silver circle' firms upset the legal order". The Times. London. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
Further reading
- Wald, Eli, "The rise and fall of the WASP and Jewish law firms." Stanford Law Review 60 (2007): 1803-1866 online
External links
- Chambliss, Elizabeth (September–October 2005). "Terms of Art". Legal Affairs.
- Lin, Anthony (May 10, 2006). "Can the 'Jewish Law Firm' Success Story Be Duplicated?". New York Law Journal.