Greenberg Traurig

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Greenberg Traurig LLP is an international law firm with approximately 1,500 attorneys and governmental professionals in 29 locations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Its presence in Europe is supplemented by strategic alliances with Olswang (offices in London, United Kingdom and Brussels, Belgium), and Studio Santa Maria (offices in Milan, Italy and Rome, Italy). In Tokyo, Japan the firm maintains both its own office and a strategic alliance with Hayabusa Kokusai Law Offices. Greenberg Traurig is the seventh largest American law firm based on number of lawyers.

Greenberg Traurig is managed by its Chief Executive Officer, Cesar Alvarez, from its Miami, Florida office, the firm's historic base of operations and administrative headquarters.

Contents

[edit] Offices

[edit] North America

Greenberg Traurig's largest office is in the MetLife Building in New York City. The New York office is one of many offices founded in the 1990s, when GT expanded from a local South Florida firm to become one of the largest in the United States.
Greenberg Traurig's largest office is in the MetLife Building in New York City. The New York office is one of many offices founded in the 1990s, when GT expanded from a local South Florida firm to become one of the largest in the United States.

[edit] Europe

[edit] Asia

  • Tokyo, Japan (Greenberg Traurig office and strategic alliance with Hayabusa Kokusai Law Offices (隼国際法律事務所?) for Japanese legal work)

[edit] History

[edit] Formation and growth

Greenberg, Traurig and Hoffman was founded in Miami, Florida in 1967 by attorneys Mel Greenberg, Robert Traurig and Larry Hoffman. The firm initially had only one associate and one junior partner, and had no plans of expanding outside the Miami metropolitan area. As recently as 1991 it only had two offices, in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

After Hoffman became managing partner in 1991, the firm began to expand nationwide, beginning with the opening of an office in New York City.[1] Much of the firm's growth in the past decade has been through mergers with specialty law firms in various major cities.[2] During this period, the firm grew by over 800 percent and New York became its largest center of business.[3]

[edit] Lobbying and Jack Abramoff

In January 2001, lobbyist Jack Abramoff left Preston Gates Ellis to join Greenberg Traurig. Abramoff brought a book of business then worth more than $6 million annually to Greenberg Traurig, according to his own estimates.

In 2000, before Abramoff joined the firm, Greenberg had $3.3 million in lobbying fees. After he joined in 2001, the firm took in $16.2 million in fees. By 2002, that number jumped to $17.7 million, and $25.5 million by 2003.[4] The firm became one of the top 10 of Washington lobbying firms, moving from 16th place to fourth, according to the National Journal. [5]

The firm fired Abramoff in early 2004 and has received praise from federal investigators and members of Congress for its cooperation in the Abramoff investigation. A Greenberg spokesman said that its federal lobbying revenue in 2005 was 1 percent of its total revenues of $860 million.

On July 12, 2006, the Alabama-Coushatta tribe filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against now-convicted Abramoff and his cohorts. Greenberg Traurig was not a named defendant, but the tribe began discussing a settlement payment by the firm later that month. Its lawsuit states that "There was a nexus between Greenberg, the enterprise and the pattern of racketeering." According to the suit, internal Greenberg e-mails showed that Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon, although not a member of the firm, "billed hours to tribal clients through Greenberg and that members of the law firm, including attorneys Kevin Ring, Shawn Vasell, Stephanie Leger, Todd Boulanger and others, fabricated hours and time entries for Scanlon." The suit also says the firm allowed checks sent by the tribe to a bogus Abramoff-linked think tank to be funneled and cashed through Greenberg Traurig.[6]

An NPR news report from March 2006 stated that: "...Abramoff recently granted a rare press interview to Vanity Fair magazine, where he asserts President Bush and other prominent figures in Washington know him very well. He called them liars for denying contact with him" [7].

LEGAL TROUBLES FOR THE FIRM CONTINUED IN 2007 In January, 2007, Greenberg Traurig agreed to pay the FDIC $7.6 million for its role as a legal adviser to the now defunct Hamilton Bank of Miami, according to a June settlement between the FDIC and Greenberg. Later that same month, the firm was sued in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County, by Yasmin Marinaro, a former legal assistant, for discrimination and retaliatory termination. Among other things, Ms. Marinaro's complaint alleges that Harley Lewin, head of the firm's Trademarks and Global Brand Strategies Practice, referred to Ms. Marinaro as "Chiquita Banana", and that he subsequently sought to prevent her from reporting his behavior. The lawsuit also names Stacey P. Dougan, Esq., Assistant General Counsel to the firm, as an individual defendant. [8].

[edit] External links

http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/01/lawsuit_of_the_day_marinaro_v.php

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