Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Schulte Roth & Zabel
- Designation: New York
- Head Count: 351
- Gross Revenues: $370,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $1,055,000
- Profits Per Partner: $2,105,000
- Year Over Year Change: 3
Founded in 1969 and with just over 400 lawyers, Schulte Roth & Zabel isn’t among the oldest or largest of New York firms, but it is a major player in the financial services sector. Ranked seventy–fourth on the 2011 Am Law 100 (with $373 million in revenues), Schulte is particularly known for its practices in private equity transactions and investment management (structuring hedge funds and other investment funds). Indeed, roughly a quarter of the firm’s attorneys are involved in its funds practice.
Not surprisingly, Schulte’s litigation group, comprised of some 100 attorneys, similarly emphasizes finance–related work and handles securities law matters such as internal investigations, real estate litigation, regulatory enforcement, bankruptcy, reorganization, and creditors’ rights litigation. While litigators and corporate lawyers alike are largely based out of the firm’s New York headquarters, Schulte also maintains offices in Washington, D.C., and London.
As one would expect given Schulte’s transactional–heavy workload, the economic crisis didn’t spare the firm. It ranked fifty–ninth of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index, which looked at how the country’s largest firms fared between 2007 and 2009. And it likely would have placed even lower had 2010—another tough year for Schulte—been considered. Profits per partner fell from $2.3 million in 2008 (when they ranked tenth among firms) to just over $2 million in 2010 (ranking twentieth). By the end of 2011, however, the tide finally seemed to be turning, with revenues inching up 1.2 percent for the year, and profits per partner rising to just over $2.1 million.
While Schulte fares better than average on diversity (thirty–eighth of 194 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 ranking) and pro bono work (placing forty–seventh of 200 firms in 2011), associate morale has, arguably, taken a bigger beating than the firm’s financials. Schulte ranked 122nd of 137 firms on our 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey, and 122nd of 126 firms on the 2011 tally. There’s something to be said for consistency, although Schulte’s junior lawyers might argue otherwise.
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 78 | 3 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 78 | 3 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 119 | 10 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 28 | 7 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 47 | no change | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 42 | 4 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 122 | no change | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 28 | 24 | Summer programs |
In the News
Deals & Suits
: Corporate Counsel : April 1, 2013
Suits to Watch
Julie Triedman, with Tom Coster : The American Lawyer : March 28, 2013
U.S. v. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.; Millennium Import v. Reed Smith; ACA Financial v. Goldman Sachs
Marshall's Conviction for Stealing From Astor Estate Is Upheld
Brendan Pierson : New York Law Journal : March 27, 2013
A unanimous state appellate panel yesterday upheld a one- to three-year prison sentence for Anthony Marshall, the son of socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, who was convicted in 2009 of stealing millions of dollars from his mother's estate near the end of her life while she was mentally impaired.
Big Deals
David Marcus : The American Lawyer : March 27, 2013
Pinnacle/Ameristar; Cerberus/Supervalu; ICE/NYSE
'Some Are Far Worse Than Their Worst Act'
Scott R. Saks : New York Law Journal : March 26, 2013
Empathy for Family, and Prisoner
: New York Law Journal : March 20, 2013
N.Y. Makes 'Painfully Slow' Progress in Applying Landmark Ruling
Joel Stashenko : New York Law Journal : March 18, 2013
Fifty years to the day since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 'Gideon v. Wainwright' that courts are required to provide indigent criminal defendants with counsel, critics say New York's system of criminal representation for the poor remains deficient, although progress is being made.
Covington, Schulte on Hand as SandRidge Makes Peace with Activist Hedge Fund
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 14, 2013
Covington & Burling and Schulte Roth & Zabel helped end a four-month battle for control of SandRidge Energy less than a week after an adverse ruling in a Delaware court reached a settlement with hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital Management that paves the way for new management at the embattled oil and gas exploration company. The proxy fight is the latest example of activist shareholders—and their lawyers—flexing their muscle.
New Partners Yearbook 2013
: New Jersey Law Journal : March 8, 2013
The past year saw a continued resurgence in new partners at New Jersey firms, which, if not quite as robust as the year before, still held its own as an indicator that the firms are sanguine about expansion.
Second Circuit Finds an Exception to Pro Rata Allocation Rule
Howard B. Epstein and Theodore A. Keyes : New York Law Journal : March 4, 2013
In their Corporate Insurance Law column, Howard B. Epstein, a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel, and Theodore A. Keyes, special counsel at the firm, writes that, for over a decade now, courts across the nation have wrestled with the appropriate approach to allocating loss in insurance coverage cases concerning continuous property damage that takes place over many years.
- Allen & Overy
- Andrews Kurth
- Ashurst
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bracewell & Giuliani
- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Covington & Burling
- Crowell & Moring
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Denton Wilde Sapte
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Downey Brand
- Duane Morris
- Freehills
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Goulston & Storrs
- Herbert Smith
- Hogan Lovells
- Holland & Knight
- Husch Blackwell
- Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- Katten Muchin Rosenman
- Keker & Van Nest
- Kilpatrick Townsend
- King & Spalding
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kutak Rock
- Lathrop & Gage
- Lewis and Roca
- Linklaters
- Locke Lord
- Loeb & Loeb
- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
- Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
- Minter Ellison
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Morrison & Foerster
- Munger, Tolles & Olson
- O'Melveny & Myers
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Patton Boggs
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Porter & Hedges
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Squire, Sanders & Dempsey
- Stephenson Harwood
- Steptoe & Johnson LLP
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Sullivan & Worcester
- Thompson Hine
- Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
- White & Case
- Willkie Farr & Gallagher
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
