Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Designation: International
- Head Count: 1,252
- Gross Revenues: $1,131,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $905,000
- Profits Per Partner: $2,685,000
- Year Over Year Change: no change
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Cleary’s Manhattan headquarters offers a stunning 360–degree view of the world around it. Almost from the time it was founded in 1946, Cleary has been looking outward. It was one of the first firms to expand into Europe, opening a Paris office in 1949, and has long tightly integrated its overseas operations with those within the United States. Today, more than one–third of Cleary’s roughly 1,200 lawyers are based in Europe, with dozens more in Latin America and Asia. Much of its billion–dollar–a–year revenue (a mark Cleary crossed for the first time on the 2011 Am Law 100 list) derives from its expertise in global matters, including international trade and regulatory work, capital markets, antitrust, and restructuring and bankruptcy.
Alone among the thousand–lawyer firms, Cleary maintains just two stateside offices, in New York and Washington, D.C. Each, however, is a formidable presence: New York is a center for the firm’s busy corporate and litigation practices; Washington is the hub for its antitrust and regulatory work. A perennial top finisher on the Am Law 100 list (ranking in the top 20 since 1986), Cleary has also been a highly profitable firm. It ranked third on that year’s Am Law Profitability Index, which looks at a firm’s ability to convert revenue into profits.
The success hasn’t come at too great a price, either. While long hours are the norm, Cleary is known as a relatively informal, collegial place (spurring that, perhaps, is a compensation system based solely on seniority). There is a lot of promotion from within—90 percent of Cleary’s partners started out as associates at the firm—and Cleary is one of the more diverse large firms around, ranking fourth on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard (28 percent of associates self–identify as a person of color and 8 percent as either lesbian or gay). Generally, the firm scores good marks from its junior lawyers, ranking eighteenth on The American Lawyer’s 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey (though this dropped to fifty–ninth in 2011).
While there have been some disappointments—after 18 years trying to boost an underperforming Japan office, the firm finally pulled the plug in 2006—Cleary’s formula has clearly been a winner.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 15 | no change | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 15 | no change | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 16 | no change | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 21 | 5 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 50 | 9 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 13 | 9 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 59 | 41 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 92 | 9 | Summer programs |
In the News
Am Law 100 Foursome Advise on $1.3 Billion Wealth Management Sale
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 15, 2013
Cleary, Davis Polk, and Skadden have landed lead roles on the proposed $1.3 billion sale of National Financial Partners—a New York-based insurance brokerage and wealth management firm run by the daughter of former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill—to Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, which for the first time tapped Ropes & Gray to handle an acquisition.
Singapore's Wall Street Problem
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : April 15, 2013
Singapore has attracted droves of international firms, but several of the most elite names in the business remain conspicuously absent from the island nation's growth story.
Jones Day on Taiwan Semi's $1.5 Billion Bond Issue
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : April 11, 2013
The world's largest chipmaker issued two tranches of notes in order to raise money for general corporate purposes.
Asia Deal Digest: April 11, 2013
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : April 11, 2013
*WongPartnership advises Singapore's Changi Airport on new $968 million terminal*Suncorp Group taps King & Wood Mallesons for $500 million bond issue*Allens on sale of Lend Lease Group's Australian aged care business to New York hedge fund
Letter From Seoul: A City Not Exactly on the Edge
Anthony Lin : The Asian Lawyer : April 9, 2013
Asian Lawyer editor Anthony Lin is visiting Seoul this week, where he finds that the threat from North Korea looms both large and small.
Asia Deal Digest: April 4, 2013
Tom Brennan : The Asian Lawyer : April 4, 2013
* Cargill turns to WongPartnership for a $1.25 billion Asia refinancing* King & Wood Mallesons helps an Aussie developer acquire stakes in three Sydney office towers* Clifford Chance leads on $403 million dim sum bond issue
Cleary Partner Named Chief Counsel to U.S. Attorney
Mark Hamblett : New York Law Journal : April 3, 2013
Joon Kim, who has been a partner in the litigation and enforcement group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton since 2006, has returned to the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office.
Dealmakers of the Year
: The American Lawyer : April 1, 2013
In a shaky recovery, corporate lawyers played an even more crucial role than they did in boom times. Here are 14 who had a hand in 2012's most notable transactions.
Tall In the Saddle
: Corporate Counsel : April 1, 2013
The New GC of MetLife really worked his way up by his bootstraps; and other Moves.
Banks Topple Antitrust Claims in Private LIBOR Suits
David Bario : The Litigation Daily : April 1, 2013
- 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
