Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Hughes Hubbard & Reed
- Designation: New York
- Head Count: 344
- Gross Revenues: $365,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $1,060,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,730,000
- Year Over Year Change: 9
Hughes Hubbard manages to stand at both ends of The Am Law 100. By gross revenue alone, it typically ranks near the bottom of the list. But change the focus to revenue per lawyer and noneconomic measures like diversity, pro bono work, and associate satisfaction—the factors The American Lawyer considers when compiling its annual “A–List” of firms—and Hughes Hubbard jumps to the head of the line. Indeed, after years of steadily climbing up the ranks of our A–List, it hit the number one spot in 2011.
Founded in 1888 in New York, Hughes Hubbard has eschewed the “grow big, grow fast, grow wide” strategy of many of its peers. It hasn’t gone crazy adding laterals and partners, there haven’t been any blockbuster mergers, and it hasn’t opened a bunch of new offices in exotic locations. The last two offices Hughes Hubbard opened—nine years apart from each other—were in Kansas City and Jersey City.
When Hughes Hubbard expands, it is often done via small lateral acquisitions. In recent years the firm has used this strategy to bulk up its restructuring and bankruptcy practices. The Kansas City office came together after Hughes Hubbard added a team of product liability lawyers—and their tobacco–heavy caseload—from Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
While the firm’s practice runs the gamut—from traditional areas like mergers and acquisitions, real estate, antitrust, and intellectual property, to niches like art law—litigation is a particular strength. Hughes Hubbard earned an honorable mention in The American Lawyer’s 2012 Litigation Department of the Year competition, based largely on successes for Merck & Co., Inc, in the company’s Vioxx personal injury litigation, and a multibillion–dollar recovery for the trustee for the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. liquidation.
As if there wasn’t already enough work to go around, Hughes Hubbard lawyers put in an unusually high number of hours on pro bono matters. On The American Lawyer’s 2011 Pro Bono Report—in which Hughes Hubbard ranked second of 200 firms—lawyers averaged more than 140 hours a year. Evidently that’s just fine with the firm’s junior lawyers, whose scores placed Hughes Hubbard tenth (of 127 firms) on our 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey. Attorneys who manage to fill the firm’s coffers, do good deeds, and are happy to boot?
Hughes Hubbard knows that such mythical creatures actually exist.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 80 | 9 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 80 | 9 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 142 | 2 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 1 | no change | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 2 | 13 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 12 | 6 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 10 | 1 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 10 | 21 | Summer programs |
In the News
The Bankruptcy Files: Big Ideas Go Bust
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : May 24, 2013
The Am Law Daily looks at the Am Law 200 firms involved in a diminishing number of notable bankruptcy filings, including those of failed social networking site Bebo, a leading nonprofit for children with psychiatric disorders, and zero-calorie flavored drink Skinny Water.
Ex-Dewey Lawyer's Move Adds Wrench to Firm's Bankruptcy
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : May 8, 2013
An attorney representing former leaders of now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf claims in a Wednesday court filing that white-collar lawyer Stephen Best's move from Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck to Brown Rudnick should disqualify his new firm from playing a role in some Dewey-related matters.
Former Dewey Executives File Objections to Deal
Tom Huddleston, Jr. : The Am Law Daily : May 6, 2013
Former Dewey & LeBoeuf CFO Joel Sanders and executive director Stephen DiCarmine filed a limited objection to a settlement reached last week that would protect former chairman Steven Davis from most future claims stemming from his alleged mismanagement of the now-defunct firm.
Widower Of Dead Smoker Gets $1.2 Million Award
Adolfo Pesquera : Daily Business Review : May 6, 2013
A West Palm Beach jury awarded $1.2 million to the widower of a smoker who died of lung cancer.
VOLS Firms Meet Pro Bono 2012 Pledge
Bill Lienhard : New York Law Journal : May 3, 2013
Former Dewey Executives Balk at Ex-Chair's Deal
Tom Huddleston Jr. : The Am Law Daily : May 2, 2013
Former Dewey Execs Balk at Ex-Chair Davis's Deal
Tom Huddleston Jr. : The Am Law Daily : May 2, 2013
In filings made Thursday, lawyers representing former Dewey & LeBoeuf chief financial officer Joel Sanders and the firm's erstwhile executive director, Stephen DiCarmine, moved to upend a settlement that would protect former chairman Steven Davis against most future claims stemming from his alleged mismanagement of the now-defunct firm.
Come 2019, Any Debt Ex-Dewey Chair Owes Firm Vanishes
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : April 30, 2013
Roundly cast as the chief culprit in Dewey & LeBoeuf's collapse, Steven Davis agreed last week to pay the bankrupt firm's estate $511,145 as part of a broader settlement that protects him against potential mismanagement claims. Thanks to a key clause contained in that settlement, though, it's possible Davis could end up not paying the estate a penny.
ASSOCIATE MOVERS
: The National Law Journal : April 29, 2013
Cynthia Rickett joins Kilpatrick Townsend's intellectual property department as an associate in the Seattle office. Plus more moves in this week's column.
- Akerman Senterfitt
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Arthur Cox
- Ashurst
- Baker & Hostetler
- Baker & McKenzie
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bracewell & Giuliani
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
- Brown Rudnick
- Burr & Forman
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickinson Wright
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Greenberg Traurig
- Gross McGinley
- Harris Beach
- Haynes and Boone
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kilpatrick Townsend
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kutak Rock
- Lane Powell
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Lowenstein Sandler
- Margolis Edelstein
- McCarter & English
- McDermott Will & Emery
- McKenna Long & Aldridge
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
- Morrison & Foerster
- Moses & Singer
- Nixon Peabody
- Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus
- Norton Rose
- O?Melveny & Myers
- Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Perkins Coie
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Pryor Cashman
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- Robinson & Cole
- Ropes & Gray
- Seyfarth Shaw
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Shipman & Goodwin
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Sullivan & Worcester
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wiley Rein
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Winston & Strawn
- Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor
