Firm Profiles

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.