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
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
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : March 22, 2013
Cozen O'Connor snatches six attorneys from Edwards Wildman Palmer to open a West Palm Beach, Florida office; Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough loses the head of its national fraud and abuse practice to Jones Day in Atlanta; and a Massachusetts district attorney plans a move to Nixon Peabody. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
White & Case's Madrid Launch Headlines Spate of New Office Openings
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 20, 2013
Three years after Latham & Watkins poached more than a dozen White & Case partners in New York, the Middle East, and London, White & Case has launched a new outpost in Madrid by raiding Latham for its Spanish corporate head. Other firms opening new offices include Cozen O'Connor, GrayRobinson, Hogan Lovells, K&L Gates, Reed Smith, Venable, and Winston & Strawn.
Locke Lord Hires Five Partners in Hong Kong
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : March 14, 2013
Locke Lord is expanding in Hong Kong through an association with local firm Cheung & Lee, which counts five partners: Balbir Bindra, Wing Cheung, Alfred Lee, Tejinder Mahil and Matthew Wong. Previously little known internationally, Dallas-based Locke Lord recruited several Salans partners last year to launch a London office as part of a push to expand overseas.
Texas' Locke Lord Hires Five Partners in Hong Kong
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : March 13, 2013
The Dallas firm is seeking to establish itself as an international player.
Leggiadro Ltd. v. Winston & Strawn
: New York Law Journal : March 13, 2013
S-Corporation's Stockholders' Legal Malpractice Claim Against Firm Dismissed
A Year After Losing Its Lawyer, Intrade Halts Its Business
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : March 13, 2013
Intrade, the once popular online trading exchange that was forced to shutter its U.S. unit last November, ceased operations this week amid an investigation into its business practices. The latest development comes a little more than a year after former Winston & Strawn partner Michael Philipp, who had been representing Intrade in the U.S. and is now a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Chicago, dropped the company as a client, according to a complaint filed against the Dublin-based company by the CFTC.
Store's Malpractice Claim Proceeds Against Winston
Christine Simmons : New York Law Journal : March 12, 2013
The store, Leggiadro, claimed that in negotiating an early termination and buy-out of the store's lease with the landlord, Winston & Strawn failed to advise that Leggiadro would be subject to a corporation tax.
Cybor Warrior: Fort Worth Lawyer Targets Federal Circuit Precedent
John Council : Texas Lawyer : March 11, 2013
David Skeels and his client are like a lot of patent litigators and litigants: They want the hard-fought claims-construction rulings they win in federal trial courts to stand a better chance of surviving appeal. So, they've mounted an attack on a seminal 15-year-old decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- 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
