- Presiding Partner: Michael W Blair
- Number of partners worldwide: 150
- Number of other lawyers worldwide: 550
- International Offices: Debevoise has offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Firm Overview:
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, founded in 1931, has approximately 700 lawyers practicing in key financial centers of the world, including New York, Washington, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The firm’s lawyers represent clients in all principal practice areas, including complex acquisition and financing transactions, litigation and arbitration, tax, employee benefits, and trusts and estates.
Main Areas of Practice:
Corporate:
The Corporate Department is the firm’s largest practice group. Its work spans the full range of general corporate, transactional and regulatory representations in the United States and throughout the world. Major corporate practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, private equity, capital markets, insurance industry transactions, banking, bankruptcy and restructuring, derivatives, structured finance, project finance, equipment and leveraged finance, real estate, investment fund and asset management, intellectual property,media and technology, energy and environmental law. The firm has a proven track record of handling innovative and complex US, international and cross-border transactions. Lawyers from the firm’s offices around the world co-operate to provide integrated, seamless legal services to meet the needs of the firm’s clients. Debevoise represents multinational US and non-US industrial and commercial companies and financial institutions including insurance companies, investment companies, banks and brokerdealers, individuals and non-profit organizations in a comprehensive range of assignments.
Litigation:
The Litigation Department handles a broad range of complex matters in federal and state courts nationwide, and before agencies, administrative bodies and arbitration tribunals worldwide. Mary Jo White, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and John S Kiernan Co-Chair the Litigation Practice. The practice group also includes 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 Chair of Litigation who served as the UK’s Attorney General; 11 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 Eastern Districts of New York; a former Associate Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement; and a former New York State Superintendent of Insurance. Debevoise & Plimpton is the only law firm to have former US and UK Attorneys General. Areas of concentration include securities litigation and enforcement proceedings, whitecollar crime, investigations, antitrust, bankruptcy, general commercial litigation, international dispute resolution, insurance industry disputes, intellectual property and media, and products liability.
Tax & Employee Benefits:
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 organizations and has an active executive compensation and employee benefits practice.
Trusts & Estates:
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.
International Work: Debevoise’s global partnership combines local insight and accessibility with firm-wide skills to handle its clients’ assignments across international boundaries and time zones. The firm’s multicultural offices and multilingual teams of lawyers have established a sound track record in both major and emerging markets, representing US, European, Asian and Latin American clients.
Areas of PracticeCorporate Mergers & Acquisitions
Private Equity/Fund Formation
Private Equity/M&A
Financial Institutions
Capital Markets
Litigation
Media & Technology
Securities Litigation
Products Liability
Intellectual Property/Litigation
Intellectual Property/Corporate
International Arbitration
International Corporate
Investigation
White-Collar Crime
Tax
Trusts & Estate