Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
- Designation: New York
- Head Count: 320
- Gross Revenues: $319,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $995,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,675,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
Don’t let Kramer Levin’s Am Law 100 rank fool you: While the firm generally places near the bottom of the list on revenue, it scores far higher—typically in the top 30—on profits per partner and average compensation per partner. Its partnership is a select group, too, numbering well under 100, which is relatively small for a top–tier New York firm.
Nor is Kramer one of those Manhattan firms that can trace its roots back to the Industrial Revolution. It was founded in 1968, and has been careful about its growth ever since, keeping to just one office for more than 30 years until it opened a Paris location in 1999. Yet another decade would pass until a third office, in Silicon Valley, opened in late 2011. And this isn’t a firm adding 100 lawyers a year, or, to the relief of many an associate during the recession, laying off 100 lawyers at a clip.
What Kramer has done, instead, is expand by bringing in relatively small groups of lateral hires. The Silicon Valley office—intended to bolster the firm’s intellectual property practice—got a jump start with the hiring of two IP partners from King & Spalding. In its main New York office, Kramer has, over the years, brought in groups with established practices in private equity, securitization, land use, and immigration practices. And it was the hiring of 20 lawyers who had practiced together for 20 years that got the firm’s Paris office off the ground.
Arthur Kramer, the firm’s name founder, was the brother of playwright Larry Kramer, the gay activist. According to The New York Times, Arthur, who died in 2008, was the inspiration for the character Ben Weeks in Larry’s play “The Normal Heart,” about the AIDS crisis. The firm has been very active in pro bono efforts on behalf of various gay and lesbian causes.
The firm has very busy antitrust, bankruptcy, hedge fund, private equity and real estate practices. Its two most widely known partners, Gary Naftalis and Barry Berke, specialize in white collar defense work.
Kramer is not one of the more diverse law firms among the top 100—minorities constituted less than 6 percent of the U.S. partnership in 2011—but it has a solid record on pro bono work. With lawyers averaging 64 hours of nonpaying work, Kramer finished fifty–fourth of 200 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Pro Bono Report. Junior lawyers give the firm above average scores too, albeit sometimes just barely: Kramer finished sixty–first of 126 firms in 2011.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 94 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 94 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 133 | 1 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 34 | 3 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 54 | no change | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 92 | 28 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 61 | 18 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 40 | 2 | Summer programs |
In the News
Litigator Juggles Pro Bono Representation of Inmate With Needs of Start-Up Practice
Christine Simmons : New York Law Journal : February 21, 2013
Just as Christopher Paolella was hitting his stride in surmounting the challenges of starting his own firm he received a call in October from an old boss that threw his life into turmoil. Paolella, a partner of Reich & Paolella, learned that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wanted to recommend him to represent a prison inmate whose handwritten petition, against very heavy odds, had persuaded the court to add his case to its docket.
King & Spalding, Jones Day, Loeb & Loeb Snag New Partners
Julia Love : The Recorder : February 20, 2013
Litigator Juggles Pro Bono Representation of Inmate With Needs of Start-Up Practice
Christine Simmons : New York Law Journal : February 20, 2013
Just as Christopher Paolella was hitting his stride in surmounting the challenges of starting his own firm he received a call in October from an old boss that threw his life into turmoil. Paolella, a partner of Reich & Paolella, learned that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wanted to recommend him to represent a prison inmate whose handwritten petition, against very heavy odds, had persuaded the court to add his case to its docket.
Dewey Advisers Fight to Keep Bankruptcy on Course as DiCarmine, Others Subpoenaed to Testify
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : February 20, 2013
In what may be the final week of the Dewey & LeBoeuf bankruptcy before the defunct firm's Chapter 11 liquidation plan is approved, an emergency hearing was held Wednesday to weigh last-minute discovery requests made by two former firm partners challenging that plan. Among other things, the judge overseeing the case ordered former Dewey executive director Stephen DiCarmine to appear in court next week.
InMotion Honors Volunteers
Tania Karas : New York Law Journal : February 19, 2013
Fifteen legal teams, law firms and individual lawyers were recently honored for their pro bono work helping low-income women for inMotion, a 20-year-old legal services nonprofit, over the past year.
AMR's $11 Billion US Airways Merger a Boon to Big Firms
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : February 14, 2013
Almost a dozen Am Law 100 firms have landed lead advisory roles on the proposed $11 billion merger of American Airlines parent AMR and US Airways Group—a Valentine's Day deal that would create the world's largest airline. While several firms have already reaped millions in attorneys fees for their work on the AMR bankruptcy, navigating the looming regulatory approval process is likely to fatten at least some of those firms' coffers even more.
International Arbitration: A Page From My 'After-Life'
Judith S. Kaye : New York Law Journal : February 6, 2013
Judith S. Kaye, counsel to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and the former chief judge of the State of New York, writes: What a pleasure, and point of pride, it has been to encounter the choice of New York law in far-flung transactions, a recognition of the soundness and stability of New York case law.
No Growth in Partner Promotions at Many of N.Y.'s Largest Private Law Offices
Christine Simmons : New York Law Journal : February 4, 2013
A glance at promotion figures from the top quarter of New York's largest law offices shows the percentage of New York attorneys making partner holding steady or declining, a trend that legal market observers say is due to a combination of smaller class sizes, diminished legal demand and legal market growth outside the city.
Obituary: Maurice Nessen
: New York Law Journal : January 29, 2013
"Maury" Nessen, a founding partner of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel and criminal defense attorney, died Jan. 25 of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85.
Oprah Interview Marks Beginning of Armstrong's Next Legal Battle
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : January 28, 2013
Now retired, Lance Armstrong no longer scales the alpine peaks of Europe, but the disgraced cyclist's terse admission about using banned substances could put him back on a steep legal path — one that could land him in federal court or even bankruptcy.
- Akerman Senterfitt
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