Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Alston & Bird LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Alston & Bird
- Designation: Atlanta
- Head Count: 805
- Gross Revenues: $686,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $850,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,715,000
- Year Over Year Change: 2
There aren’t many firms where lawyers drive around in UPS trucks for a day delivering packages. No, it’s not a punishment detail, but a program to enable Alston & Bird attorneys to learn more about the shipping giant, a key client. Going the extra mile—literally—to understand a client’s business has helped the Atlanta–based firm rack up a roster of A–list relationships with companies including The Dow Chemical Company, Bank of America, Delta Air Lines, Nokia, Twentieth Century Fox, and The Prudential Insurance Company of America.
A full–service firm, Alston & Bird has particular strengths in intellectual property (nearly 200 of the firm’s approximately 800 attorneys practice IP full–time) and public policy. (Alston & Bird’s legislative and public policy group includes four former congressional leaders, including 1996 presidential candidate and former senate majority leader Bob Dole.) While the firm traces its roots back to 1893, a series of mergers—particularly from the late 1990s on—significantly expanded Alston & Bird’s size and reach, giving it additional offices in locations like New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Alston & Bird played a significant role in the aftermath of the Enron scandal: Partner Neal Batson was named examiner for the failed energy company by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The firm has also fared relatively well in the nonfinancial metrics that The American Lawyer tracks, ranking twenty–eighth of 126 firms in the magazine’s 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey, placing sixty–sixth of 194 firms on our 2011 Diversity Scorecard, and coming in forty–sixth (out of 200) on the 2011 Pro Bono Report. It’s also a regular on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work rankings. Like much about Alston & Bird, the numbers may not be chart–topping, but they are respectable, and for many of the firm’s peers, enviable.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 41 | 2 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 41 | 2 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 38 | 2 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 32 | 14 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 46 | 18 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 70 | 4 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 28 | 25 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 22 | 3 | Summer programs |
In the News
DelCampo, Friends Start Dunwoody Firm In Farmhouse
Meredith Hobbs : Daily Report : May 22, 2013
Former DeKalb County Judge J. Antonio DelCampo has left the high-flying plaintiffs firm he joined two years ago to go into practice with a couple of old friends much closer to home.
Answer man
Richard Acello : The National Law Journal : May 20, 2013
Profile of Berkeley Research Group general counsel Marvin Tenenbaum.
Real Estate Lawyers Target Closing Vendors
Greg Land : Daily Report : May 16, 2013
Real estate closing attorneys around the state are battling companies that hire Georgia lawyers to preside over closings just long enough to see that the documents are signed and witnessed. Meredith Ragains, left, Simon Bloom and Stephanie Everett have filed proposed class actions against closing vendors and their lawyers on behalf of more than 3,000 property buyers.
Large Firms' Ethical Screens Jeopardized by Ruling, Two Say
Kathleen Baydala Joyner : Daily Report : May 14, 2013
The Georgia attorney general and a private lawyer are asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that prohibits public defenders within the same circuit from representing co-defendants, arguing it would place large law firms in jeopardy.
Texas' Top Deals of 2012
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys : Texas Lawyer : May 13, 2013
The top 10 deals in Texas in 2012.
D.C. MOVES
: The National Law Journal : May 13, 2013
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : May 10, 2013
Alston & Bird adds four partners to its capital markets department on the East Coast; the vice-chair of Greenberg Traurig's pharmaceutical, medical device, and health care litigation practice has left for Jones Day; and Locke Lord expands its Hong Kong office with five new attorneys. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
Alston & Bird Adds Five Partners From Dentons
Christine Simmons : New York Law Journal : May 9, 2013
Four of the five new partners in the capital markets practice - Richard Simonds, Scott Samlin, A. James Cotins and Matt Lyons - are in New York, while Stephen Ornstein is in Washington, D.C.
Outsourcing Group Jumps to Bryan Cave
Meredith Hobbs : Daily Report : May 8, 2013
After six years at Sutherland, Scott Hobby has taken his eight-person outsourcing practice to Bryan Cave in a move that brings him full circle. Joining Bryan Cave as partners, from left, are Charles Hollis, Derek Johnston, Scott Hobby and Sean Christy.
All-Lawyer Band: Bellwether Station
Chris Kelly, Special to the Daily Report : Daily Report : May 3, 2013
Questionnaire completed by: Chris Kelly wrote the good parts. Chris Fox revised and made these responses less awesome. Other band members who would prefer not to be associated with such frivolity may have made minor changes and edits, wet blankets that they are.
- Adams and Reese
- Akerman Senterfitt
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Ashurst
- Baker & McKenzie
- Brown Rudnick
- Buist Moore
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morrison & Foerster
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Nexsen Pruet
- Nixon Peabody
- Norton Rose
- O?Melveny & Myers
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
