White & Case
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| White & Case | |
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| Type of Company | Limited liability partnership |
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| Founded | 1901 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York |
| Key people | Duane Wall, managing partner |
| Industry | Legal services |
| Employees | 4,200 |
| Slogan | Worldwide. For our clients |
| Website | www.whitecase.com |
White & Case LLP is a leading global law firm with nearly 1,900 lawyers practicing in 38 offices in 25 countries on five continents. Founded in New York in 1901, the firm has long handled complex cross-border transactions for the financial and investment communities, and is known for its dispute resolution.
Since early in its history, White & Case has been an international law firm. It was one of the first foreign firms to set up operations in mainland China and has a strong presence in emerging markets throughout Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. The firm has US, English and locally qualified lawyers throughout the world, many native to the region in which they are based.
Its clients are public and privately held commercial businesses and financial institutions, as well as governments and state-owned entities. They are often involved in undertakings documented under four or five governing laws and of interest to as many taxing authorities; in transactions involving principals and lenders from a dozen countries; or in disputes involving assets in multiple countries. White & Case also provides legal advisory services to, and in, developing or emerging countries.
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[edit] History
On May 1, 1901, two Wall Street lawyers, J. DuPratt White, 31, and George B. Case, 28, contributed $250 each to launch White & Case.[1]
White had only apprenticed at a law firm and never attended law school. Case had graduated from Columbia Law School four years earlier, but they shared a vision of what a law firm should be, as well as the friendship of one of the era’s most influential men: J.P. Morgan & Co. financier Henry P. “Harry” Davison.
Davison hired White & Case to organize Bankers Trust Company, a client relationship that endures through its successor, Deutsche Bank. Davison retained White & Case to represent a series of banking ventures and provide legal services to many of the companies financed by J.P. Morgan, including U.S. Steel. Banking remains a key interest for the firm, which represents more than 100 banks worldwide.
During World War I, the British and French governments hired J.P. Morgan & Co. to purchase war materials in the United States on their behalf. White & Case handled the legal work, writing contracts with nearly 1,000 US suppliers. By the war’s end, some $3 billion of armaments had been channeled to the British and French military -- nearly half of all US supplies sold to the Allies during the Great War. In recognition of the firm’s efforts, the French government made DuPratt White a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
[edit] Between the wars
George Case, at the behest of Harry Davison and President Woodrow Wilson, served on the Red Cross’s War Council, helping to transform it from a small charity into an international institution. The firm opened an office in Paris on the Place Vendome in 1926 to better serve the growing organization.
From the outset, this tradition of pro bono service was deeply ingrained within the fabric of White & Case. In 1900, White became a commissioner of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, formed to preserve the majestic wooded cliffs along the Hudson River. Supporters of the project included Pierpont Morgan, railroad magnate Edward Harriman and John D. Rockefeller Jr., who donated 700 acres (2.8 km²) for the park. But according to The New York Times, it was White who served as “the guiding figure” in the commission’s work, handling its legal affairs free of charge for more than 30 years.
Colonel Joseph Hartfield, who joined the firm in 1905, eventually heading it from the early 1950s until 1964, was also noted for his community service. A colorful character, Hartfield was physically diminutive, one of the first Jewish lawyers to reach the pinnacle of a major New York firm, and was renowned for his annual celebratory trips to the Kentucky Derby.
In 1935, at the request of socialite and White & Case client August Belmont, Jr., Hartfield became an officer of the newly formed Metropolitan Opera Guild, helping to guide the Met through the Depression, including avoiding bankruptcy. He served as director and member of the Met’s executive committee, and today his efforts are recognized by a plaque on the Grand Tier railing of the Metropolitan Opera House honoring his contributions.
Perhaps the premier exponent of the firm’s pro bono commitment in the second half of the firm’s first century was senior partner Orison Marden, who practiced law at White & Case for more than 45 years. Marden fervently believed in making legal services available to all people in the United States regardless of means. He served as longtime director and chairman of the board of The Legal Aid Society. That organization honors his memory through its annual Orison S. Marden Award, bestowed upon a staff attorney for outstanding dedication and service.
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund annually hosts the Orison S. Marden Memorial Lecture, focused on professional ethics and increasing the availability of legal services to the indigent.
[edit] World War II and post-war growth
With World War II came new challenges for White & Case. In 1940, Paul Pennoyer, then head of the firm’s Paris office, faced the daunting task of winding up the firm’s business even as German tanks approached the city’s outskirts. When he was ordered back to New York, Pennoyer tucked in his pocket the stock certificates of French cosmetics company Lanvin. It was a risky move -- whoever had physical possession of the bearer certificates could vote the shares -- but it allowed Lanvin to operate outside Europe throughout the war.
The postwar years brought many high-profile matters to the firm. In 1960, Pennoyer reopened the Paris office, beginning the global expansion that continues to the present.
White & Case represented Aramco, which held the concession to develop and produce Saudi Arabia’s massive oil reserves, when the company was served with a federal grand jury subpoena in an investigation of alleged worldwide oil cartels. No action against the company resulted from those grand jury proceedings and an enduring relationship between Saudi Aramco and White & Case had begun.
In 1954, White & Case represented the sellers in the $51.5 million sale of the Empire State Building, then one of the largest real estate transactions in New York City history.
The 1963 “salad oil scandal” was dubbed by The Wall Street Journal “one of the biggest swindles in history”. It involved a vegetable oil dealer who defrauded customers and lenders, including an American Express subsidiary that had issued fraudulent warehouse receipts certifying the existence of oil. Among the dealer's techniques were moving oil between tanks so it could be double-counted and installing false-bottom cylinders to create the illusion that the tank was full. White & Case represented Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Co., the largest creditor in the matter, with $20 million of outstanding loans. The case resulted in one of the largest financial settlements in history at the time, in which American Express paid its creditors $57.9 million in cash and up to $30 million of recoveries from insurance and other sources.
[edit] A global law firm
Few individuals changed the firm more than James Hurlock, who shaped the firm’s global presence and structure as its head from 1980 until 2000. Visionary and demanding, Hurlock was a Rhodes Scholar and spent 10 of his first 16 years with White & Case in Europe.
Two early negotiations helped establish the reputation of the firm’s sovereign practice. During that time, Hurlock helped Indonesia reschedule more than $10 billion of debt, mostly held by foreign banks, when state oil company Pertamina was unable to meet payments. The firm also helped Turkey reschedule debt incurred after the Turkish central bank accepted Turkish lira deposits convertible into hard western currencies. As the value of the lira fell, the bank’s financial condition deteriorated.
White & Case began opening offices in business and financial centers around the world, including Brussels in 1967; London in 1971; Hong Kong in 1978; Singapore, Jakarta and Stockholm in 1983; Ankara and Istanbul in 1985; Los Angeles in 1986; Miami and Tokyo in 1987; and Jeddah in 1989.
From the beginning, these offices were regarded as an integral part of the firm. Jean-Luc Boussard, who joined White & Case in 1975, became the first European partner in 1982. Today, 46 percent of the firm’s partners hail from outside the United States.
When the Berlin Wall fell in late 1989, the firm moved quickly to open offices in Prague, Budapest, Warsaw and Moscow and was selected by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia to provide representation in their mass privatization programs.
Demand for arbitration and alternative dispute resolution grew with this increasing globalization, as increased cross-border trade and investment flows created the need for impartial and efficient means to resolve international commercial disputes. The 2000 Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in International Arbitration, published by Euromoney, featured seven White & Case partners, more than any other law firm.
Project finance work also thrived as the firm globalized. White & Case now has approximately 100 lawyers around the world who advise on financings for power plants, telecommunications facilities, airports and other projects. In many cases, project financing offers the most effective way for nations to develop new infrastructure and improve the quality of life.
Mergers and lateral recruitment also became part of the firm’s strategy. In 1998, White & Case merged with Brussels’ Forrester, Norall & Sutton, focusing on European Union law. The Brussels office today is a recognized leader in this emerging area of practice.
[edit] New century, new management
In 2000, managing partner Duane D. Wall assumed leadership of White & Case. With a hint of his native Oklahoma in his voice, Wall takes a collegial approach to management, seeking to find common ground among partners who are bright and often strong-willed.
Wall is presiding over a dramatic expansion of the firm, especially in Europe, where the firm has opened two offices in Italy and merged with one of Germany’s largest firms to create White & Case, Feddersen.
White & Case was one of the first US firms to establish a London office, in 1971, and was one of the first foreign firms to qualify when the Law Society of England and Wales changed its rules in 1993 to allow English and registered foreign lawyers to practice together in partnership. It has both English and US lawyers in its London office, which handles capital markets, cross-border finance, M&A, project finance, dispute resolution and intellectual property. Since mid-2000, the London office has more than doubled in size and has recruited several of the city’s most respected lawyers, particularly in the area of acquisition finance.
Northern California is also a growing practice, with expansions in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with emphasis on intellectual property, executive compensation and corporate finance practices.
Some White & Case lawyers serve in various industry leadership roles. For example, as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Tokyo partner Robert Grondine serves as the chief spokesperson for American business interests in Japan. In France, Paris partner John Riggs co-chairs the Committee on Coordination of Relations with European Bars of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and has served on the prestigious Paris Bar Council.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, White & Case was one of five firms that formed a steering group to coordinate the efforts of New York lawyers to provide free emergency legal services to victims. Wall has also pushed White & Case to develop pro bono programs in jurisdictions around the world that were previously unfamiliar with the practice.
Asset Finance
Bank Advisory
Bank Finance
Banking
Capital Markets
Construction and Engineering
Corporate
Corporate Defense and Special Litigation
Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance
Environmental
Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits
Financial Restructuring and Insolvency
Global Equity Based Compensation
Insurance
Intellectual Property
International Arbitration
International Trade Investment Funds
Labor, Employment and Immigration Law
Legislative/Law Reform
Litigation
Mergers and Acquisitions
Privacy
Private Clients
Privatization
Public Finance
Public International Law
Real Estate
Securities
Securitization
Sovereign
Tax
Technology
Telecommunications
Trade and Commodity Finance
