Firm Profiles

When you’re a 900–lawyer firm based in Milwaukee, you already stand out from the pack, but Foley & Lardner is noteworthy on other grounds, too. For one thing, its attorneys probably know more about baseball than any other firm.

Foley is the longtime counsel for Major League Baseball—it helped steer the MLB through the recent acquisition of the Chicago Cubs by the Ricketts family, making it the single largest transaction for a North American sports franchise to date—and is one of the nation’s leaders in sports law. The firm also boasts strengths in health care law, life sciences, and securities and IP litigation.Foley operates 18 U.S. offices and, not surprising given its headquarters, has a particularly large presence in the Midwest. It expanded into Asia in the 2000s, opening an office in Tokyo in 2003 and one in Shanghai in 2007 (the firm has an office in Brussels as well). The economic downturn, however, stalled Foley’s growth somewhat. In January 2011 it had about 40 fewer lawyers than it did a year earlier, and gross revenues had dropped some $100 million during the same period. The firm ranked seventy–second of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index, and Foley’s profits per partner rank barely managed to crack the top 100 between 2007 and 2010. Morale among junior lawyers has also lagged: The firm ranked 120th of 126 firms in 2011 (it was 119th of 137 firms the year before).

A bright spot has been the firm’s pro bono commitment which got a boost even as the economy, and Foley’s revenues, took a hit. Ranked 119th in 2007, the firm placed thirty–sixth in 2011, having increased its annual pro bono hours by 192 percent in four years. In an innovative touch, Foley has also leveraged its IP prowess in its pro bono efforts by working with community–based artist organizations to help musicians, actors, even video game designers, in matters ranging from copyright registrations to landlord–tenant disputes. “Many artists are down–on–their luck and out of money,” says partner Martin Bishop, the chair of Foley’s pro bono committee in Chicago, who orchestrated the project. “Without the help of competent counsel, some of their rights would go unprotected.”

—Updated as of 1/1/12