Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Winston & Strawn LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Winston & Strawn
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 842
- Gross Revenues: $755,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $895,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,490,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
Based in Chicago since the mid nineteenth century, Winston & Strawn boasts one of the nation’s premier litigation practices. The chair of the firm, Dan Webb, is one of the nation’s leading corporate defense lawyers. He made his reputation as a corruption–busting U.S. Attorney in Chicago and as a down–to–earth defender of General Electric, Microsoft and Philip Morris. Winston’s litigation practice as a whole picked up a finalist nod in The American Lawyer’s 2004 Litigation Department of the Year contest, as well as honorable mentions in 2006 and 2010. And it was was a finalist in the 2010 IP Litigation Department of the Year competition, thanks largely to its successful advocacy in patent cases for generic drug makers (the firm’s IP group was also one of the first to expand into new media work).
Yet it is not just the trial lawyers getting all the glory. Winston is well–respected for its antitrust and trade regulation, employment and labor, and trusts and estates work. It’s also known for steering through some hard times in its history, like the recent global financial crisis. While revenues took a bit of hit, by 2011 they had topped the firm’s prerecession peak. Significantly, too, Winston was seeing renewed success recruiting lateral partners. In 2011 it wooed 40 of them, including 19 from the now–defunct Howrey.
Like many of its peers, Winston has been looking to Asia for growth, leveraging offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai (the firm’s other international outposts are in Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, and Paris). Stateside, the firm has a major presence in Washington, D.C., where its practice includes strong antitrust and regulatory groups (other U.S. offices are in Charlotte, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, and San Francisco).
Winston has scored above–average grades for pro bono work (coming in seventy–seventh of 200 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Pro Bono Report, with lawyers averaging about 48 hours of annual nonpaying work). But junior lawyers have had gripes: Winston finished near the bottom on both our 2010 (135th of 137 firms) and 2011 (121st of 126 firms) midlevel associates surveys. Consistency, it turns out, is not always a virtue.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 34 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 34 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 25 | 6 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 77 | 26 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 81 | 8 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 121 | 14 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 45 | no change | Summer programs |
In the News
Who Owns the Funk?
Thomas Huddleston Jr. : The American Lawyer : April 1, 2013
George Clinton is in danger of losing control of his hard-won rights to the master recordings of four of his classic albums—to one of the firms that helped him reclaim those rights.
Careful What You Wish For
Vanessa Blum : Corporate Counsel : April 1, 2013
Pressing charges against hackers can create awkward discovery battles.
$40.5 Million Awarded to McKesson in 30-Year Iranian Dairy Dispute
Zoe Tillman : The National Law Journal : March 29, 2013
Writing that he hoped he was near the end of litigation that the D.C. Circuit once described as "Sisyphean labor," a D.C. federal judge has ordered Iran to pay $40.5 million in damages, interest and attorney fees to plaintiff McKesson Corp. in a 30-year dispute over interests in an Iranian dairy.
Alston & Bird, Kirkland Join Raft of Firms Circling Potential Dell Deal
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 27, 2013
The two Am Law 100 firms—along with Delaware shops Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell and Richards, Layton & Finger—have stepped into the takeover battle for Dell, whose $24.4 billion leveraged buyout is in jeopardy as private equity firm The Blackstone Group and famed corporate raider Carl Icahn mount their owns bids for the computer maker.
Left in the Lurch
Julie Triedman : The American Lawyer : March 27, 2013
Hispanic farmers fought the USDA over discriminatory lending practices. Time for recovery is running out.
Tech Circuit: March Madness/Spring Fever Edition
Monica Bay : Law Technology News : March 25, 2013
Everybody's got spring fever! We explore a unique incentive program to get your company's employees to identify compliance risks; an app that will process business cards right into Linkedin; as Opening Day is right around the corner. [MORE]
Two Firms Settle Unfinished Business Claims With Howrey
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 25, 2013
Two Firms Settle Unfinished Business Claims with Howrey Trustee
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 25, 2013
Holland & Knight and Fenwick & West are among the first firms to agree to pay money to the Howrey estate based on the legal theory that bankrupt law firms have a stake in work taken by their former lawyers to their new professional homes.
Dewey Estate Seeks to Dismantle Former Partner Claims
Sara Randazzo : The Am Law Daily : March 22, 2013
In a filing made Thursday, lawyers for the Dewey & LeBoeuf estate criticized claims made against the bankrupt firm by a group of former partners as "nothing more than thinly veiled attempts" to avoid liability.
Attorneys of the Year 2012: Richard Pachulski
: The Recorder : March 22, 2013
- Adams and Reese
- Anderson Kill & Olick
- Arent Fox
- Arthur Cox
- Baker & McKenzie
- Buist Moore
- Chadbourne & Parke
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Dickstein Shapiro
- DLA Piper
- Duane Morris
- Eversheds
- Fish & Richardson
- Freehills
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian
- Heller Ehrman
- Herbert Smith
- Howrey
- Irwin Mitchell
- Jenner & Block
- K&L Gates
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Mallesons Stephen Jaques
- Minter Ellison
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Nexsen Pruet
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Perkins Coie
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Slaughter and May
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
