Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Bingham McCutchen LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Bingham McCutchen
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 900
- Gross Revenues: $872,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $970,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,690,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
It may not be wise to compare a firm with deep roots in Boston to New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio, but both enjoyed memorable streaks: DiMaggio, 56 straight games with a hit; Bingham McCutchen, 15 straight years of rising revenues. Indeed, Bingham’s streak continued through the worst of the global financial crisis, ending only in 2011.
The baseball analogy is doubly fitting, since one needs a scorecard to follow Bingham’s growth. The firm is the result of a string of mergers, beginning in 2001, when Boston’s Bingham Dana merged with Richards & O’Neill, a 55–lawyer New York firm known for its litigation and corporate groups. The following year, Bingham merged with San Francisco’s McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, adding five offices and boosting its intellectual property practice. A few smaller mergers followed, and then in 2009, Bingham acquired McKee Nelson, an Am Law 200 firm that specialized in tax and structured finance.
Despite Bingham’s above–average showing during the downturn—it placed fifth of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index—it laid off a few dozen lawyers and staff in 2009 and instituted a salary freeze for that year. Not incidentally, perhaps, subsequent associate satisfaction scores were less than stellar, with the firm placing 105th of 137 firms in our 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey and eighty–third of 126 firms on the 2011 tally. Summer associates, on the other hand, saw things quite differently, with the firm ranking second on the magazine’s 2010 survey and third in 2011.
Bingham—which has a sizable presence in Washington, D.C., thanks to a 2006 merger with 175–lawyer Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman—has branched out into lobbying work. A fully owned subsidiary, Bingham Consulting, assists clients with matters that mix business, policy, and politics. Chris Cox, a former California Congressman and SEC chair, heads BC. The firm has also joined many of its peers in looking toward Asia for future growth. It opened Hong Kong and Tokyo offices in 2007, followed by a Beijing office in 2011.
Indeed, China’s growing importance is such, says firm chair Jay Zimmerman, that “we can’t afford not to be there in the long term.”
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 26 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 26 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 32 | 6 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 55 | 12 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 122 | 32 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 83 | 22 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | NR | N/A | Summer programs |
In the News
Chicago-based Vedder Price Opens San Francisco Office
Tom Huddleston Jr. : The Am Law Daily : April 4, 2013
Patton Boggs, Vedder Price Latest Am Law Firms to Open New Offices
Tom Huddleston Jr. : The Am Law Daily : April 4, 2013
On the heels of K&L Gates and Fox Rothschild entering new cities earlier in the week, Patton Boggs and Vedder Price launch locations in Dubai and San Francisco, respectively.
Ex-Bingham Associate With Sleep Disorder Wins Round at Appeal Court
Scott Graham : The Recorder : April 3, 2013
11 Partners Leave Bingham for Sidley
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 3, 2013
Three years after joining Bingham McCutchen as head of the securities enforcement practice after stepping down as FINRA's enforcement chief, Susan Merrill is decamping to Sidley Austin with 10 other Bingham partners, three of whom will join Merrill in the New York office, while others will establish Sidley offices in Boston and Portland, Maine.
Perkins Coie Adds to S.F. Ranks
Julia Love : The Recorder : April 2, 2013
In Battle For Large Lateral Group, Sidley Comes Out Ahead
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : April 2, 2013
When Sidley Austin cochair Carter Phillips contacted a recruiter he knew for help wooing a Bingham McCutchen securities enforcement partner in late January, she gave him a blunt message: "You're behind." Over the course of the next two months, Sidley succeeded in persuading that partner and 10 more Bingham lawyers to the firm.
Court considers whether inmate's sex reassignment poses security risk
Sheri Qualters : The National Law Journal : April 2, 2013
A federal appeals court heard debate on Tuesday about the potential for security problems if prison officials follow a Boston federal judge's order to provide sex reassignment surgery to a convicted murderer diagnosed with severe gender identity disorder.
Harris v. Bingham McCutchen LLP
: The Recorder : April 1, 2013
Life Prisoner's Sex-Change Bid Becomes Cause Célèbre
Sheri Qualters : The National Law Journal : April 1, 2013
Political and religious groups at both ends of the political spectrum have jumped into the appellate battle over a Boston federal judge's order that prison officials provide sex reassignment surgery for a convicted murderer.
Sidley Snags 11 Securities Lawyers from Bingham
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 1, 2013
Three years after joining the firm upon stepping down as FINRA's enforcement chief, Bingham McCutchen securities enforcement practice head Susan Merrill and 10 other Bingham partners are decamping to Sidley Austin in New York.
- Adams and Reese
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Anderson Kill & Olick
- Arthur Cox
- Ashurst
- Baker & McKenzie
- Brown Rudnick
- Buist Moore
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickstein Shapiro
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Duane Morris
- Eversheds
- Fish & Richardson
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Mallesons Stephen Jaques
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- 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
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
