- Kelley Drye & Warren
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Kelley Drye & Warren 
Headquarters New York City No. of offices 7 No. of attorneys 300+ Major practice areas General practice Revenue N/A Date founded 1836 [1] (Albany) Company type LLP Website www.kelleydrye.com Kelley Drye & Warren LLP is an American law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is made up of over 300 attorneys with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Stamford, Parsippany, Chicago, Brussels and with an affiliated office in Mumbai. In 2006, the firm merged with the Washington, D.C. firm of Collier Shannon Scott PLLC.
As of 2006, the firm is ranked among the top 200 by The American Lawyer, with over $160 million in gross revenue.[2] (free registration required).
Contents
History
The firm traces its founding back to 1836, when Benjamin Franklin Butler moved his practice from Albany to New York City. The firm, then called Joline, Larkin & Rathbone helped reorganize numerous railroads, including the Metropolitan Street Railway and the New York City Railway after they declared bankruptcy in the early 1900s. It also played a role in the restructuring of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in 1908, St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad in 1913, Maxwell Motor Company, Inc. in 1913 and 1921, American Writing Paper Company in 1926 and 1927, Detroit United Railway in 1928 and 1929, International Mercantile Marine Company in 1929, and the Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation in 1933. In 1921, Nicholas Kelley, son of Florence Kelley [1], a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School joined the firm from the Treasury Department, having previously been an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In 1943, Kelley's name was added to the letterhead. Kelley Drye incorporated Chrysler as a Delaware corporation in 1925, and advised that company through World War Two and onto post-war acquisitions. In 1947, Kelley Drye lawyers assisted the US government draft the Taft-Hartley Act, a major piece of collective bargaining (labor union) legislation.
Kelley Drye & Warren employed 210 lawyers in January 1984 with offices in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., Morristown, New Jersey, and Stamford and Danbury, Connecticut. In February 2003, the firm shut its 25-member Los Angeles office that it had acquired in 1984 through a merger with Mori & Ota because the office was not profitable.
Kelley Drye is often credited with developing the "pension parachute" defense of hostile takeovers.
Kelley Drye & Warren merged with Washington, D.C.-based firm Collier Shannon Scott in 2006. Collier Shannon Scott, founded in 1963, focused on government relations, litigation, international trade and other corporate matters. This brought Kelley Drye's Washington office headcount up to 120 attorneys.
In April of 2011, Kelley Drye & Warren merged with the Los Angeles firm of White O'Connor Fink & Brenner LLP. This merger allowed Kelley Drye to expand its practice into entertainment industry litigation, while also adding to its complex business litigation practice. [2]
Practice Areas
- Advertising and Marketing
- Antitrust and Trade Regulation [3]
- Bankruptcy and Restructuring
- Broker-Dealer
- Consumer Financial Protection
- Consumer Product Safety
- Corporate
- Corporate Finance and Securities
- Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
- Entertainment and Media
- Environmental Law
- Financial Solutions
- Food and Drug Law
- Georgetown Economic Services
- Government Relations and Public Policy
- Information Technology Litigation
- International
- International Trade and Customs
- Labor and Employment
- Litigation
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Privacy and Information Security
- Private Clients
- Private Equity
- Project Finance
- Real Estate
- Site Selection
- Tax
- Telecommunications
- Trade Associations
- White Collar Crime Investigations
Notable Litigation
Kelley Drye played a leading role in defense of the Agent Orange litigation and defended Union Carbide following the Bhopal disaster. In 2002, the firm represented J.P. Morgan Chase in a lawsuit against insurance carriers seeking $1 billion in compensation for its Enron-related losses after white shoe firm Davis Polk & Wardwell was disqualified after a conflict of interest (Davis Polk also represented Chubb Corporation, an insurer). In 2003, Kelley Drye negotiated a settlement on behalf its client and obtained nearly 60% of the $1.1 billion demanded.[5] It also prosecuted the unsuccessful Addamax lawsuit.
Offices
Brussels
Chicago
Mumbai (affiliated firm)- Los Angeles
- New York
- Parsippany
- Stamford
- Washington, D.C.
References
- ^ William Darrah "Pig Iron" Kelley
- ^ Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Merges with White O’Connor Fink & Brenner LLP
- ^ Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Merges with White O’Connor Fink & Brenner LLP
- ^ LawPeriscope Profile
- ^ Kelley Drye & Warren, 'Highly Favorable Settlement Reached in J.P. Morgan Chase Trial' (2003) http://www.kelleydrye.com/news/transaction_matters/0025
External links
Categories:- Law firms based in New York City
- Law firms established in 1836
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