- Presiding Partner: Michael W Blair
- Number of partners worldwide: 155
- Number of other lawyers worldwide: 548
Firm Overview:
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP was founded in 1931 with the goal of offering sophisticated legal services. The firm maintains this tradition of seeking excellence in a comprehensive, modern practice that spans the Americas, Europe and Asia. Lawyers are responsive, thoughtful, ethical and vigorous advocates with a substantive understanding of clients’ business needs and the many marketplaces in which they compete. It has leading practices that often have a cross-border focus due to the firm’s international approach to the practice of law. Debevoise places the highest value on collaboration and interdisciplinary cooperation in order to provide clients with seamless representation across practice areas and across continents. The firm represents multinational, US and non-US industrial and commercial companies, private equity sponsors, financial institutions including insurance companies, investment companies, banks and broker-dealers, as well as individuals in a comprehensive range of assignments.
Main Areas of Practice:
Corporate:
The Corporate Department’s work spans the full range of general corporate, transactional and regulatory representations. The practice includes mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, leveraged finance, business restructuring and workouts, real estate, project finance, equipment finance, structured finance, asset management, intellectual property, and environmental law. The firm has an exceptionally strong track record advising private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, as well as clients in the media and telecommunications, banking, insurance and energy industries.
Litigation:
The Litigation Department handles complex matters in courts in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere, as well as before arbitration tribunals, agencies and administrative bodies worldwide. The Department includes the Chair, Mary Jo White, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York; John S Kiernan,Co-Chair of the Department; Michael B Mukasey, former United States Attorney General and Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; Lord (Peter) Goldsmith QC, PC, the European and Asian Chair of Litigation who served as the UK’s Attorney General; 8 former Assistant US Attorneys, including a former Under Secretary of the US Treasury for Enforcement and a former Chief Assistant US Attorney for the Southern and EasternDistricts of New York; and a former Associate Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. They are the only law firm to include former Attorneys General of both the US and the UK, as well as a Queen’s Counsel. Areas of concentration include securities litigation,white-collar crime, investigations, antitrust, bankruptcy, general commercial litigation, international dispute resolution, insurance industry disputes, intellectual property and media, and products liability.
Tax, EmployeeBenefits, Trusts & Estates:
The Tax Department works closely with the firm’s corporate lawyers in structuring complex transactions. The department also focuses on tax planning and advice for business entities, high net-worth individuals and exempt organisations and includes an active executive compensation and employee benefits practice. The firm’s diverse and highly sophisticated Trusts and Estates practice combines a significant tax orientation with frequent interdisciplinary projects involving the litigation and corporate areas. United States New York is the largest of Debevoise’s offices and the headquarters for the firm’s multi-disciplined, international practice. The office is home to more than 450 lawyers concentrating in corporate, litigation and tax law – often teaming with colleagues from offices in Europe and Asia, and with local counsel in Latin America, India and the Middle East, on complex cross-border matters. The Washington, DC office has approximately 30 lawyers who concentrate on securities regulation and enforcement, white-collar crime and commercial litigation, regulatory and transactional work for industrial and financial institutions, and international telecommunications and intellectual property matters.
Latin America:
Debevoise has been active in Latin America for nearly 50 years and over the past decade has worked on hundreds of completed transactions in the region, including some of the largest and most challenging projects. The firm is a recognised leader among international law firms active in Latin America. Recent work in the Latin American private equity/fund formation, project finance, media and financial service sectors, as well as the litigation and arbitration practice in the region, has further solidified the firm’s reputation. The firm’s client base includes many of the most prominent companies and families in Latin America as well as multinational corporations and private equity funds investing in the region.
Europe:
Debevoise’s London office has approximately 80 lawyers. Its practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, financings and private equity, as well as general corporate and tax matters. It has a strong international arbitration and litigation team. The Paris office has approximately 25 lawyers. Its practice includes domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, financings and private equity, as well as EU competition law, general corporate and tax matters and international arbitration. The Frankfurt office has more than 10 lawyers.The practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, capital markets transactions, financings and private equity, as well as general corporate and tax matters. The Moscow office has more than 25 lawyers who focus on capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, natural resource projects, financings, as well as general corporate and tax matters.
Asia:
The Hong Kong and Shanghai offices,with over 20 lawyers, are active throughout China and the Asia- Pacific region. The corporate team in Asia handles in cross-border investments, formation and deployment of private equity funds, telecommunications and other joint ventures,US securities offerings, general corporate counselling. The litigation and arbitration team in Asia handles international dispute resolution, litigation,white collar and internal investigations matters. The lawyers in Asia represent multinational companies, private equity sponsors and other investment funds in a broad range of strategic and financial investments throughout Asia.