Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Crowell & Moring LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Crowell & Moring
- Designation: Washington, D.C.
- Head Count: 459
- Gross Revenues: $349,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $760,000
- Profits Per Partner: $925,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
Most firms have a founding lawyer or two—Crowell & Moring had 53. The Washington, D.C.–based firm got its start in 1979, thanks to former Jones Day attorneys who had already developed one of the country’s leading government contracts practice. Today, in addition to the D.C. office—one of the city’s largest with nearly 300 attorneys—Crowell maintains offices in five other U.S. cities, as well as in Brussels and London.
While government contracts work still constitutes a big component of Crowell’s workload, the firm has also branched out into other areas, particularly antitrust (it was lead antitrust counsel in the $16 billion merger between SBC Communications and AT&T in 2005), health care, intellectual property, and civil and criminal litigation. Crowell has also been a champion of alternative fee arrangements, particularly “success–based” formulas—everything from reduced flat fees with performance bonuses to contingent fee arrangements to holdbacks, where the client gets to decide if Crowell earned its keep. The firm, says chair Kent Gardiner, “has made the decision to go with their clients all–in on alternative fee arrangements. The clients like that because we have skin in the game.”
Crowell is known, too, for expanding by picking up lateral partner groups. It launched its San Francisco office in 2009 after hiring 29 litigators from Folger Levin & Kahn (including name partner Michael Kahn). The same year, it jump–started its environmental and natural resources practice with five lawyers from Patton Boggs.
Like some of its D.C. rivals, Crowell has a subsidiary that does policy and regulatory consulting work, and it also scores well on The American Lawyer’s pro bono surveys. In 2011 it placed thirty–sixth of 200 firms, with the average Crowell attorney putting in 70 hours of volunteer legal work. Diversity scores are also above average, putting the firm forty–third of 194 firms in 2011. (Crowell says it was the first major D.C. firm to have a woman chair when Rosemary Collyer assumed the post in 1995.) Scores from Crowell’s junior lawyers gave it a ninety–sixth place ranking (of 137 firms) on The American Lawyer’s 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey, though it improved to fifty–third (of 126 firms) in 2011. Perhaps those quirky rubber ducks that float in the firm’s lobby fountain really are livening the mood around the office.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 83 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 83 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 95 | 2 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 42 | 1 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 36 | 5 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 60 | 17 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 53 | 43 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 9 | 3 | Summer programs |
In the News
Five Months After Felony Conviction, Former Crowell Counsel Officially Disbarred
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 20, 2013
Douglas Arntsen, a onetime real estate and commercial litigation attorney at Crowell & Moring serving up to 12 years in prison for embezzling $10.7 million in client escrow funds, can no longer practice law in New York, a court ruled this week. The disbarment ends a troubling chapter for his former firm.
Lawyers warn of sequestration's impact
Andrew Ramonas : The National Law Journal : March 11, 2013
D.C. MOVES
: The National Law Journal : March 11, 2013
Diversity and Quality of Life Category Winner:Hyatt Hotels Corp.
: The National Law Journal : March 11, 2013
Crowell Cleared of Ethics Breach in Inbreeding Imbroglio
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 6, 2013
Two decisions that just recently came to light—one issued in December and another handed down a year ago—have squelched a high-profile ethics complaint lodged against four Crowell & Moring lawyers who penned a controversial mining industry-related memo in 2011 that raised the specter of inbreeding in the Appalachian region.
March Merger Mania: Am Law 200 Trio Expands Regionally
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 5, 2013
Adams and Reese and Thompson & Knight have announced office openings in Jacksonville and San Francisco, respectively, by picking up smaller firms in those areas. Meanwhile, McKenna Long & Aldridge has made inroads in Miami and Northern Virginia by absorbing an aviation-focused boutique.
Departure of London Tax Group Doesn't Faze Dorsey's Leadership
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 4, 2013
With new managing partner Ken Cutler preparing to jet to London as part of a firmwide confidence-building tour, Dorsey & Whitney—whose gross revenue dropped for the fifth straight year in 2012—lost its tax practice Monday in the U.K. capital to local commercial litigation boutique Hage Aaronson. Nonetheless, Cutler insists the Minneapolis-based Am Law 100 firm is poised for a comeback.
At Home Abroad
: Corporate Counsel : March 1, 2013
New top lawyer for the Asian Development Bank finds his mission in life; and other Moves.
Cadwalader Shakes Things Up Again, as Cravath Proves Mortal
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : February 26, 2013
An in-depth look at the circumstances that led James Woolery, who left Cravath, Swaine & Moore two years ago to become cohead of JPMorgan Chase's North American M&A group, to join Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft as deputy chairman. Woolery's move has implications not just for his new firm, where he will attempt to reboot a languishing M&A practice, but also for the one he left behind.
Fed courts, DOJ prepare for big cuts
Todd Ruger : The National Law Journal : February 25, 2013
The outstanding question for all types of federal contractors is this: How big of a financial tempest could strike on March 1, when $85 billion in automatic and arbitrary congressional budget cuts are set to kick in?
- 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
