Dechert

Dechert LLP
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. of offices	21 total (9 international)
No. of attorneys	over 800 (2011)
Major practice areas	General practice
Key people	CEO Daniel O'Donnell, Chairman Andrew J. Levander
Date founded	1875
Founder	Wayne MacVeagh and George Tucker Bispham
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Slogan	Definitive advice, practical guidance, powerful advocacy
Website
dechert.com

Dechert LLP is an international law firm of more than 800 lawyers with top-ranked practices in corporate and securities, complex litigation, finance and real estate, and financial services and asset management. Dechert has offices throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. It was founded in Philadelphia and is registered as a limited liability partnership under Pennsylvania law.

History

The firm's first predecessor was formed in 1875 by Wayne MacVeagh and George Tucker Bispham. MacVeagh had previously served as United States Ambassador to Turkey, and went on to become United States Attorney General under President James Garfield and also United States Ambassador to Italy during the 1890s. Bispham was made a professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1884. Another future U.S. Attorney General, Francis Biddle, also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, joined the firm in 1916. In its early years, the firm represented a number of banks, railroads, and coal companies.^[1]

During World War II, the firm lost many of its attorneys to the war effort, and combined with another Philadelphia-based law firm, Dechert, Smith & Clark, which had been founded in 1930. The firm began creating specialized practice groups shortly after the war.^[1] After a series of name changes in the early 1960s, the firm decided not to change its name whenever its most senior partners retired or died; it remained Dechert, Price & Rhoads for several decades thereafter.

During the 1980s, Dechert represented Getty Oil Company in its acquisition by Texaco. This is the deal that led to the notorious Pennzoil v. Texaco case, which resulted in a Texas state court verdict for Pennzoil for $10.53 billion, forcing Texaco to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[1]

International expansion

Dechert opened its first European office in Brussels in 1968. Four years later, Dechert opened a London office and established a presence in Paris in 1995. In 2000, the firm undertook a major expansion in the United Kingdom through a merger with Titmuss Sainer Dechert, a leading London law firm. Since then, Dechert has opened offices in Luxembourg (2001), Munich (2004), Hong Kong (2007), Beijing (2008), Moscow (2009), Dublin (2010) and Los Angeles (2011).

Practice areas

The firm's core practices are corporate and securities, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and corporate finance; litigation, emphasizing antitrust, intellectual property, product liability, and white collar and securities defense; finance and real estate, with a focus on mortgage finance, structured finance, securitization, and investment; financial services, focusing on mutual funds, hedge funds, variable products, broker-dealer, commodities, derivatives, and investment advisers; and intellectual property, emphasizing patent litigation and IP prosecution and licensing.

The firm also has well-established practices in tax, bankruptcy, employment, health and environmental law.

Its product liability litigation group has represented Philip Morris in class action suits and represented Merck & Co. in suits regarding the drugs Vioxx and Vytorin.

Notable lawyers and alumni

• Harvey Bartle III, chief judge of the United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Joseph S. Clark, Mayor of Philadelphia (1952–56) and United States Senator for Pennsylvania (1957–69)
• Graham Francis Defries, lawyer and co-creator of the "Queens Counsel" comic strip
• Q. Todd Dickinson, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property
• Glenn Fine, former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice
• Paul G. Haaga, Jr., Vice Chairman of Capital Research and Management Company, a constituent company of the Capital Group Companies
• Edward A. McDonald, portrayed himself as a federal prosecutor in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas"
• Mary A. McLaughlin, judge for the United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Lisa Scottoline, best selling New York Times author
• Norma Levy Shapiro, first woman partner and retired judge for the United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Arlen Specter, United States Senator for Pennsylvania

Offices

USA

Dechert's headquarters moved to Philadelphia's Cira Centre in 2005.

• Austin
• Boston
• Charlotte (Bank of America Corporate Center)
• Hartford
• Los Angeles
• Orange County
• New York City (1095 6th Avenue)
• Philadelphia (Cira Centre)
• Princeton
• San Francisco
• Silicon Valley
• Washington, DC

Europe

• Brussels
• London
• Luxembourg
• Munich
• Paris
• Moscow
• Dublin

Asia

• Beijing
• Hong Kong

Assistance to Guantanamo captives

Attorneys from Dechert prepared the habeas corpus petition for Omar Deghayes, one of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[2][3] Attorneys from Dechert traveled to Afghanistan to check out the captives' alibis. Peter Ryan represented Nasrat Khan, a grandfather, who had a stroke in 1988, and was confined to a walker, was one of his clients.^[4]

Charles "Cully" Stimson, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, stirred controversy when he went on record criticizing the patriotism of law firms that allowed employees to assist Guantanamo captives: "corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists."^[5] Stimson's views were widely criticized. The Pentagon disavowed them, and he resigned shortly thereafter.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Dechert company profile by Gale Group, courtesy of Answers.com
2. ^ "Pro Bono: A Firm Commitment, a Firmwide Effort". Dechert. http://www.dechert.com/practiceareas/practiceareas.jsp?pg=detail&pa_id=5957. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
3. ^ Anne R. Cooke (December 1, 2006). "A Legal Take on Guantanamo Bay". Washington Spark. http://www.omgfilms.com/spark1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=2. Retrieved 2008-01-19. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Mahvish Khan (April 30, 2006). "My Guantanamo Diary: Face to Face With the War on Terrorism". Washington Post. pp. B01. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/29/AR2006042900145_pf.html. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
5. ^ Lewis, Neil (2007-01-13). "Official attacks top law firms over detainees". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/washington/13gitmo.html. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 

External links

• Dechert LLP official website
• Profile from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell