Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Baker & Hostetler
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Baker & Hostetler
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 810
- Gross Revenues: $510,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $630,000
- Profits Per Partner: $930,000
- Year Over Year Change: 4
Talk about a return on investment. In 1916 three lawyers each put $500 in the bank and started a law firm. Today, the firm they created—Baker & Hostetler—deposits hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Based in Cleveland, Baker & Hostetler’s practice areas include business, employment and labor, litigation, tax, and employee benefits. But perhaps it is best known (and best compensated) for its work untangling the multibillion–dollar Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.
Lead by bankruptcy partner Irving Picard, a court–appointed Baker & Hostetler team has recovered some $10 billion—and counting—for Madoff victims. The assignment has been a boon to Baker & Hostetler’s coffers: fees to the firm have triggered double–digit increases in annual revenue and profits per partner. That trend may continue, too. Baker & Hostetler is expected to receive some $600 million for its work between 2011 and 2014, according to correspondence from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, a private nonprofit entity backed by broker–dealers, which pays the firm’s fees.
While its Madoff work has been getting most of the attention in recent years, Baker—a full–service firm with 11 U.S. offices and affiliates in Brazil and Mexico—keeps busy in other ways, as well. It has a long history in media law, having counseled media companies before there was radio, let alone the Internet. More recently, the firm has created a Health Care Reform Group—a cross–practice group that includes lawyers from Baker & Hostetler’s health care industry, employee benefits, tax, employment and labor, and litigation teams.
Baker & Hostetler’s diversity scores have been ho–hum (with minorities comprising just 5 percent of the partnership, it finished 113th of 194 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard) and it trails the pack on pro bono (Baker & Hostetler ranked 151st of 200 firms on our 2010 tally, with lawyers averaging just over 20 hours of nonpaying work annually). But it has come in well above average on associate satisfaction, finishing seventeenth of 126 firms on our 2011 midlevels survey, and thirty–seventh of 137 firms in 2010. All of that Madoff work may be grabbing headlines, but it is apparently grabbing junior lawyers’ interest as well. And, sure, the fees don’t hurt either.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 61 | 4 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 61 | 4 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 51 | 6 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 151 | 13 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 88 | 25 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 17 | no change | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 102 | 30 | Summer programs |
In the News
Howrey Trustee Makes Good on Promise to Sue Former Partners
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 12, 2013
Nearly two years to the day after Washington, D.C.-based litigation shop Howrey dissolved, the trustee unwinding the defunct firm's Chapter 11 estate has launched the first round of lawsuits aimed at clawing back money earned by former Howrey partners from assignments they brought to the firms where they landed. More suits, and settlement talks, are in the works.
Howrey Trustee Makes Good on Promise to Sue Former Partners
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 12, 2013
Nearly two years to the day after Washington, D.C.—based litigation shop Howrey dissolved, the trustee unwinding the defunct firm's Chapter 11 estate has launched the first round of lawsuits aimed at clawing back money earned by former Howrey partners from assignments they brought to the firms where they landed. More suits, and settlement talks, are in the works.
Courts Address Clickwrap and Electronic Contracting
Richard Raysman and Peter Brown : New York Law Journal : March 12, 2013
In their Technology Law column, Richard Raysman, a partner at Holland & Knight, and Peter Brown, a partner at Baker & Hostetler, write that discuss the various types of online agreements, including the more modern hybrid clickwrap transactions, as well as the characteristics of enforceable online agreements.
Senators question White about time at firm
Matthew Huisman : The National Law Journal : March 12, 2013
Mary Jo White, President Barack Obama's nominee for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, faced little resistance from senators during her March 12 confirmation hearing.
Use of Polo Trademark on Eyeglasses Is Blocked
Ross Todd : The Litigation Daily : March 11, 2013
Ralph Lauren and its lawyers at Kelley Drye & Warren won a skirmish on March 6 in its 30-year war with the U.S. Polo Association over trademarks depicting horsemen playing the "sport of kings."
Legal Malpractice Puzzle
Zoe Tillman : The National Law Journal : March 11, 2013
As messy as legal malpractice lawsuits can be, the base relationship is usually straightforward: a lawyer facing accusations of wrongdoing by a client. But a case before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals this month is testing the limits of who can be considered a client and when nonclients can sue for malpractice.
What to Expect When Applying for Cyberinsurance
Judy Selby and Brian Esser : Law Technology News : March 4, 2013
It seems that everyone these days, from President Obama to Facebook account holders, is concerned about cybersecurity. Data breaches and cyberintrusions are front page news, and businesses are warned to take a "when, not if" approach to these threats.
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : March 1, 2013
Cooley loses two real estate partners to New York real estate boutique Duval & Stachenfeld; a group of five Gordon & Rees commercial litigators leave for SNR Denton; and McGuireWoods gains a former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
Deals & Suits
: Corporate Counsel : March 1, 2013
Feeder Fund Investors in Some Countries Excluded From Class
Ross Todd : The Litigation Daily : February 28, 2013
After poring over analysis from "high-priced arm chair oracles," Southern District Judge Victor Marrero certified a class of Fairfield Greenwich Group investors whose money disappeared in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, but excluded investors in 25 countries whose laws he concluded don't support class treatment for the investors' claims.
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