Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 806
- Gross Revenues: $775,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $960,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,540,000
- Year Over Year Change: no change
They started in 1945, a couple of young ex–FBI field agents who became partners in Gump & Strauss, a Dallas law firm. They were able and personable: Richard Gump had an eye for the energy business, and Robert Strauss had a gift for politics and a friend, John Connally, who was very close to Lyndon Johnson. Gump stayed in Texas; Strauss went to Washington, D.C. The result is a megafirm built on politics, energy, and drive.
But it’s not a Texas firm anymore. Strauss and his connections drove the firm’s direction. Former chair of the Democratic National Committee, he helped build Washington into the firm’s largest office (and a building named in his honor). Its $100 million public policy and lobbying practice is the capital’s largest, featuring prominent players from all sides of the spectrum. (The firm jousts with Patton Boggs each year for the top spot in the rankings.) Two years after Strauss stepped down as ambassador to Moscow, the firm opened there, building an early and lucrative practice amid the rubble of the Soviet empire. Texas remains the ancestral home, but even the New York office, with prominent private equity and bankruptcy practices, and a partnership famous for both its restlessness and its pricey midtown office space, is now bigger.
The firm’s trajectory hasn’t been one smooth glide. It has shed or discouraged practice groups and partners as it sought to build its profitibility—and suffered defections from partners who didn’t care for the turmoil or simply got better offers. It went abroad early, but not as boldly as the real global players or as deeply as those with clear niches. Like many firms, Akin suffered and shrunk during the recession years, firing several dozen associates and scores of nonlawyer staff. Morale seems to have improved; on the 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey it ranked thirteenth.
The firm is known for, among others, strong health care, project finance, international trade, white–collar, and appellate practices. And it keeps putting out tendrils, opening in Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Geneva, and Hong Kong over the past five years. A fitting legacy for a two–man shop that never recognized any boundaries on its ambition.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 32 | no change | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 32 | no change | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 40 | 1 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 16 | 13 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 35 | 3 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 50 | 3 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 13 | 84 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 8 | 18 | Summer programs |
In the News
INADMISSIBLE: Cool Music Soothes Supreme Court
: The National Law Journal : May 20, 2013
The occasion of the Supreme Court's spring musicale saw Broadway great Barbara Cook belting out jazz and oldtime favorites. Plus: Skadden and News Corp., Arent Fox reps the 49ers, Boasberg clears the way for school closures, a circuit judge runs, and shoe business in this week's column.
New Deals
Tania Karas : New York Law Journal : May 16, 2013
Designer jeans company True Religion Apparel has agreed to be acquired by investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners for $835 million. Also, natural gas pipeline operator Crestwood Midstream Partners and energy services companies Inergy L.P. and Inergy Midstream L.P. have agreed to form an integrated partnership with an enterprise value of $7 billion.
Caesars Entertainment: Render Unto Caesars
Sue Reisinger : Corporate Counsel : May 16, 2013
The Caesars law department takes on myriad projects in the gaming industry, one of the most tightly regulated businesses in the United States.
News Corp. Hires Ex-Skadden Communications Chief Bush
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : May 15, 2013
Antoinette Bush, partner-in-charge of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's communications group, is leaving the firm to become global head of government affairs for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation a month after Skadden helped the world's second-largest media conglomerate reach a $139 million settlement of shareholder litigation stemming from a phone-hacking scandal.
Bank and Ex-Dewey Partner Settle With No Cost to Either
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : May 13, 2013
A heated dispute between Citibank and a former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner over what the bank claimed was his unpaid capital contribution loan was quietly resolved on May 8 when Southern District Judge Louis Stanton approved a settlement under which the feuding parties agreed to drop their dueling lawsuits.
Corporate Scorecard
: Texas Lawyer : May 13, 2013
Texas' Top Deals of 2012
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys : Texas Lawyer : May 13, 2013
The top 10 deals in Texas in 2012.
Law Firms and Laterals Keep Houston Market Humming
Tom Huddleston Jr. : The Am Law Daily : May 13, 2013
Taken together, Katten Muchin Rosenman's recent move into Houston and a spate of lateral hires shows that a boom in energy-related work continues to attract new Am Law firms to Space City while motivating those already doing business there to bulk up.
VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS
: The National Law Journal : May 13, 2013
Bankruptcy Booms, Energy Expands for Texas Law Firms
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys : Texas Lawyer : May 13, 2013
Big bankruptcies earned five Texas law firms a spot on Texas Lawyer affiliate The American Lawyer's "Corporate Scorecard 2013," while energy work secured a place for six other large Texas law firms on rankings of the nation's top dealmakers in 2012.
- Adams and Reese
- Anderson Kill & Olick
- Arent Fox
- Arthur Cox
- Baker & McKenzie
- Buist Moore
- Chadbourne & Parke
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Dickstein Shapiro
- DLA Piper
- Duane Morris
- Eversheds
- Fish & Richardson
- Freehills
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian
- Heller Ehrman
- Herbert Smith
- Howrey
- Irwin Mitchell
- Jenner & Block
- K&L Gates
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Mallesons Stephen Jaques
- Minter Ellison
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Nexsen Pruet
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Perkins Coie
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Slaughter and May
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
