| Duane Morris LLP | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| No. of offices | 23 |
| No. of attorneys | 594[1] |
| Major practice areas | Full Service |
| Key people | John Soroko (Chairman), Charles J. O'Donnell (COO) |
| Date founded | 1904 |
| Founder | Russell Duane, Roland S. Morris |
| Company type | Limited Liability Partnership |
| Website | |
| duanemorris.com | |
Duane Morris LLP is a law firm headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1904 as Duane, Morris, Heckscher & Roberts,[2] the firm has offices in the United States, London, Singapore and Vietnam.[3] In addition to legal services, Duane Morris has independent affiliates employing approximately 100 professionals engaged in other disciplines.
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U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in a 2011 survey of Best Law Firms awarded Duane Morris top-tier national rankings in Construction law and litigation, Immigration, Insurance and Patent law. Overall, 29 Duane Morris practice groups were nationally ranked.In the regional rankings, 34 practice groups in 12 Duane Morris offices received top-tier recognition. [4]
U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in a 2010 survey of Best Law Firms ranked Duane Morris nationally as follows:[5]
In 2011, the Am Law 100 ranked Duane Morris as the 67th largest law firm in the U.S. based on gross revenue. [6]
In 2009, the National Law Journal ranked Duane Morris as the 72nd largest law firm in the U.S. based on October 2008 attorney headcount, which was stated to be 594.
In 2007, Duane Morris was named one of the 20 best companies for working women by Philadelphia Magazine[7] and one of the top 50 law firms for women by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, a national consulting firm focused on the retention and advancement of women.[8]
Under the ten-year leadership of Chairman Sheldon Bonovitz from early 1998 to early 2008, Duane Morris grew from a little more than 200 lawyers in 1998 to more than 650 by January 2008. Revenues increased over that period from $70 million to $375 million for 2007.[9] Bonovitz stepped down at the beginning of January 2008, replaced by former Vice Chairman John J. Soroko.
Harvard Business School completed a case study of the firm's growth entitled "Duane Morris: Balancing Growth and Culture at a Law Firm," which was presented in curriculum during the 2006-2007 academic year.[10][11]
Duane Morris claims that it is unique among large law firms by maintaining an active contingency fee practice.[16][17] Contingency fees contributed $15 to $20 million to the firm's gross revenue in 2009.[18]
This practice raised concerns in the press after Duane Morris twice teamed up with the plaintiff firm of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, which was founded by William Lerach, who was sentenced to prison for offering kickbacks to lead plaintiffs.[19][20]
Duane Morris represented on contingency, six of the nine whistleblowers in a case against Eli Lilly in which the nine were rewarded with $78 million from the federal criminal settlement after Eli Lilly was found guilty of illegally marketing the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa for off-label use.[21]
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