Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Goodwin Procter LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Goodwin Procter
- Designation: Boston
- Head Count: 777
- Gross Revenues: $715,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $920,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,515,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
One of Boston’s old–line law firms, Goodwin Procter has seen much expansion since the late 1990s, tripling in size and growing its presence in Asia and London. A full–service firm, Goodwin focuses on technology, intellectual property, life sciences, private equity, real estate, and financial services. Its white–collar defense practice is well known, too.
Yet Goodwin, which was founded in 1912, has also seen challenges in recent years. Its transactional practice was hit hard during the economic crisis: and the firm laid off more than three dozen associates in February 2009. Even an uptick in Goodwin’s financials in 2011—helped by gains in technology, private equity, and corporate work— was due in part to a decreased equity partner roster (several of those departures coming from high–profile defections to rival firms during 2011). A more positive note was the firm’s transactional practice in Asia (based out of Goodwin’s Hong Kong office), which benefited from client investments in China. Ironically, the financial crisis triggered a steady stream of work for Goodwin’s litigation department, which has handled a stream of lawsuits brought against client Countrywide Financial Corporation (accusing the mortgage giant of engaging in misleading sales and marketing practices in the run–up to the housing meltdown). “At various times we’ve predicted that the pipeline [for those cases] is 18 months to two years out,” the firm’s chair, Regina Pisa, said in early 2012. “I think those cases have at least two to three year’s life left in them.”
While Goodwin’s financials may be getting a jump start, its noneconomic metrics still wait their turn. The firm has turned in middling numbers on some key surveys by The American Lawyer. It ranked 104th of 126 firms on our Midlevel Associates Survey in 2011, and with minorities comprising just 4 percent of the U.S. partner roster, Goodwin finished 110th (of 194 firms) on the magazine’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard. The firm’s pro bono score was better, but not awe–inspiring: With lawyers averaging a bit over 54 hours a year of nonpaying work, Goodwin finished seventy–first among the Am Law 200 firms.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 39 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 39 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 45 | 1 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 71 | 32 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 119 | 9 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 104 | 14 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 50 | 22 | Summer programs |
In the News
BofA Settles Countrywide MBS Class Actions for $500 Million
Jan Wolfe : The Litigation Daily : April 17, 2013
Federal Court Refuses to Toss Bank of America Class Action
Zack Needles : The Legal Intelligencer : April 15, 2013
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a class action suit against Bank of America, its home loan and reinsurance subsidiaries and a number of private mortgage insurers, instead directing the parties to develop a record on the issue of whether the statute of limitations should be equitably tolled based on the plaintiffs' claims that the defendants allegedly engaged in a scheme to use mortgage insurance premiums to fund illegal kickbacks to lenders.
Medical Industries Under the Anticorruption Lens
Yvonne Cristovici, Amanda Raad, and Sean Seelinger : Corporate Counsel : April 15, 2013
The pharmaceutical and medical device industries remain subject to increased anticorruption scrutiny by regulators around the world, largely because of their business models.
Wilson, Cooley Tapped for Pair of IPOs
Joshua Sisco : The Recorder : April 3, 2013
The Taxman Cometh: Bruce Gilchrist | Hogan Lovells
Victor Li : The American Lawyer : March 28, 2013
Archstone Enterprise's sale to Equity Residential and AvalonBay made a big splash in the small world of REITs—and the right tax structure was the key to making it work.
Atmel's Law Department Runs On, and Shares, Data
Lisa Holton : The Recorder : March 27, 2013
Atmel's top lawyer likes to collect extensive in-house analytics and hand out report cards to go-to outside counsel.
Supreme Court Reverses Texas Supreme Court in Patent Legal Malpractice Case
Robert C. Scheinfeld and Parker H. Bagley : New York Law Journal : March 27, 2013
In their Patent and Trademark Law column, Robert C. Scheinfeld, a partner at Baker Botts, and Parker H. Bagley, a partner at Goodwin Procter, review a decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that the particular legal malpractice claim at issue did not "arise" under federal patent law and, indeed, state legal malpractice claims based on underlying patent matters will "rarely, if ever," arise under federal patent law.
Stakes High in Dispute Over Groundbreaking ADHD Drug
Vanessa Blum : The Recorder : March 25, 2013
After taking on Genentech and Monsanto, IP litigator Gerald Dodson is gunning for Johnson & Johnson.
Xoom Corp. GC Keeps the Money Moving
Joshua Sisco : The Recorder : March 22, 2013
Christopher Ferro parlayed his run as corporate counsel at PayPal during its early days to a general counsel position at money transfer startup Xoom.
Scott Wornow
Lisa Holton : The Recorder : March 21, 2013
Atmel's top lawyer likes to hand out report cards to go-to outside counsel.
- Adams and Reese
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- Brown Rudnick
- Buist Moore
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
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- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
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- Diamond McCarthy
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- DLA Piper
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- 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
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- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- 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
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
