Greenberg Traurig

Greenberg Traurig is an international law firm founded in Miami, Florida, United States in 1967 by Larry J. Hoffman, Mel Greenberg and Robert H. Traurig. For the past three years, it has ranked #14 in the AM Law 100 by gross revenue, and in the top 20 of the Global 200.[1][2]

Greenberg Traurig, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, PA
(trading as Greenberg Traurig)
No. of offices40
No. of attorneysApproximately 2200
Major practice areas
  • Business Reorganization and Bankruptcy
  • Litigation
  • Corporate and Securities
  • Intellectual Property and Information Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Real Estate
  • Tax, Trusts and Estates
  • Global Trade
  • Governmental Affairs
  • Public Finance
  • Environmental and Land Development
  • Gaming
Key people
  • Brian Duffy, CEO
  • Richard A. Rosenbaum, Executive Chairman
Revenue1.64 Billion USD
Date founded1967
Websitegtlaw.com

It has 41 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia,[3] and has approximately 2100 attorneys worldwide.[4] Their largest office is in New York City.[5]

History

In the 1970s, Greenberg, Traurig and Hoffman became Greenberg, Traurig, Hoffman, Lipoff, and Quentel with the addition of attorneys Norman H. Lipoff and Albert D. Quentel as named shareholders. The late Florida governor Reubin Askew was a named shareholder in the early 1980s while he also sought the Democratic nomination for president.[6]

Larry Hoffman became managing partner of the firm in 1991, at which point the firm began to expand nationwide, beginning with the opening of an office in New York City.[7] Greenberg Traurig expanded to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Wilmington (Delaware) in 1999; in 2000, the firm doubled the size of its New York City office by acquiring the local office of the defunct Graham & James.

In July 2009 Greenberg Traurig opened an office in London under the name of Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP (since renamed to Greenberg Traurig, LLP). The London office is currently located in The Shard skyscraper.[8]

Founding office location in Miami

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Greenberg Traurig was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $1.49 million, 50.2% to Democrats.[9] By comparison, during that same period Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld donated $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats,[9] while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans.[10] Since 1990, Greenberg Traurig contributed $11.2 million to federal campaigns.[11]

In 2013 the firm launched a residency program to hire associates who are not recruited in traditional on-campus interviews by allowing them to spend up to a third of their billable hours in training for a one-year trial period.[12][13][14]

In 2016, Brian Duffy became CEO.[15]

In July 2018, founding member Robert Traurig died at age 93 in Miami, Florida.[16]

As of 2018, Greenberg Traurig was the 14th largest law firm in the United States.[17]


Corporate social responsibility

Since its launch in 2009, Greenberg Traurig has participated in the American Bar Association's National Pro Bono Week.[18]

The Greenberg Traurig Holly Skolnick Fellowship Foundation was established in 1999. The Foundation supports Equal Justice Works public interest lawyers.[19] Previously named the Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation, the program was renamed in 2013 in honor of the late Holly Skolnick, a Greenberg Traurig shareholder who helped establish the foundation and served as its president.[20]

Finances

Revenue Chart[21][22][23]
Data 2015 2016 2017 2018
Revenue (in $ billions) $1.32B $1.4B $1.477B

Awards and rankings

Law Firm Rankings[24]
Year AM Law 200 Rank Global 200 Rank
2018 14 19
2017 14 19
2016 14 20
2015 15 20

Controversies

In January 2001, lobbyist Jack Abramoff left Preston Gates & Ellis to join Greenberg Traurig. Abramoff brought a book of business then worth more than $6 million annually to Greenberg Traurig, according to his own estimates. At the firm he assembled "Team Abramoff", a lobbying team that was involved in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and the monetary influence of Jack Abramoff.

In 2001, Victor Reyes, who headed the Hispanic Democratic Organization, joined Greenberg Traurig and led the firm's Chicago lobbying practice. After Reyes's arrival, from 2001 to 2005, Greenberg earned $3.5 million in city-related legal fees, including for representing the city in the United Airlines and RCN Cable TV bankruptcies. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald subsequently alleged that Reyes's law office was central to a patronage scheme to funnel city jobs to pro-Daley campaign workers. Reyes resigned from Greenberg in August 2005 and wasn't charged, but prosecutors called him as a "co-schemer" in the indictment.[25] Greenberg CEO César Álvarez stated, "I don't know about anything [Reyes] did in the firm that was wrong. I can only know what I have seen, and I only know that he hasn't been charged".[26]

In May 2005, Philadelphia partner Robert S. Grossman plead guilty to charges that he had lied in a 1996 bankruptcy case to cover up his improper diversion of over $100,000 to his personal account when he worked as a real estate developer in Virginia.

In June 2006, Greenberg Traurig agreed to pay the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $7.6 million for its role as a legal adviser to the now-defunct Hamilton Bank of Miami, to settle allegations that it had helped to cover up bank officers' financial misconduct. The firm paid an additional $750,000 fine to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for allegedly protecting the bank's officers "by making materially false and misleading assertions and by suppressing material evidence".

In November 2006, Jay I. Gordon, the former chairman of Greenberg Traurig's tax practice, resigned from the New York bar and was disbarred for taking over $1.2 million in kickbacks on tax shelters that he had recommended to wealthy clients of the firm.[27]

In November 2008, a New York State court refused to dismiss a suit alleging that Robert J. Ivanhoe, head of its real estate group, disregarded his "legal and fiduciary duties" by taking a personal financial stake in a competitor to a client that had invested in a multibillion-dollar real estate venture.[28] The former client had sued Ivanhoe and Greenberg Traurig in April 2008 for breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with prospective economic damages, and malpractice. Greenberg Traurig responded that the allegations were "without merit" and that it would appeal the ruling.[29]

In December 2008, the firm and several current and former firm attorneys (Harley Lewin and Steven Wadyka) were sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by Catherine and Richard Snyder of Herndon, Virginia. Also named in the suit, Greenberg Traurig's client, Diane Von Furstenberg Studios, Conde Nast Publications, The New Yorker and New Yorker staff reporter, Larissa MacFarquhar. The Snyders' suit stems from a suit filed in the same court by Diane Von Furstenberg Studios against Catherine Snyder in December 2006 for trademark infringement, which resulted in an award of damages to DVF Studios. [30]

In 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) looked into insider trader allegations between United States House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health staff director Brian Sutter and Mark Hayes, a lobbyist at Greenberg Traurig. In November, 2015, New York U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe ordered the Committee and a former staffer to respond to an SEC subpoena request , but he did term the request "overbroad." The SEC sought to determine whether Sutter or anyone else from the Committee tipped off lobbyist Mark Hayes of Greenberg Traurig, which information was then forwarded to Height Securities LLC. Judge Gardephe reasoned that the congressional Speech and Debate Clause does not provide protection for information communicated by a legislative member or aide to a member of the public, and that Sutter's statements to employees of Greenberg are consequently not protected and must be produced.[31][32] After two years of litigation and its 2nd Circuit appeal of the subpoena in December 2015, the Committee finally dropped its opposition to the order requested by the SEC.[33]

In May 2018, the firm parted ways with Rudy Giuliani over his allegations that he would pay his clients' adversaries hush money in a manner consistent with the Stormy Daniels affair. Mr. Giuliani suggested that such payments were common, even without the knowledge of the clients.[34]

References

  1. https://www.law.com/law-firm-profile/?id=126&name=Greenberg-Traurig. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2018/09/24/the-2018-global-100-ranked-by-revenue/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. "Locations". Greenberg Traurig. Archived from the original on February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  4. Greenberg Traurig: "Greenberg Traurig, one of the largest law firms in the U.S., to Enter German Market with more than 50 Lawyers" July 14, 2015
  5. "Leaders" (PDF).
  6. "3/19/14 Memorial Service for Former Florida Governor Reubin Askew - The Florida Channel".
  7. "Greenberg Traurig Endows the Larry J. Hoffman Greenberg Traurig Distinguished Professorship". Archived from the original on February 16, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2007.
  8. "GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP". Companies House. Companies House. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  9. "Lawyers & Lobbyists: Top Contributors to Federal Candidates, Parties, and Outside Groups". OpenSecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics.
  10. "Energy/Natural Resources: Top Contributors to Federal Candidates, Parties, and Outside Groups". OpenSecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  11. "Organizations: Greenberg Traurig". OpenSecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  12. "'Residency program' associates at this BigLaw firm will get more training and less pay". ABA Journal. October 22, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  13. "Law school grads trade top pay for job experience". Sun Sentinel. November 19, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  14. "A Firm Leader's Guide to Survival of the Biggest". The National Law Journal. February 24, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  15. "Duffy named CEO of Greenberg Traurig lawfirm". miamiherald. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  16. "Robert Traurig, who helped build one of the world's largest law firms, dies at 93". miamiherald. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  17. September 04, Zach Schlein |; PM, 2018 at 12:48. "The Town That Bob Built: Assessing Robert Traurig's Legacy And the Powerhouse Law Firm He Left Behind". Daily Business Review. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  18. "Celebration Supporters". National Pro Bono Week. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  19. ""Equal Justice Works"".
  20. "Greenberg Traurig Announces New 2014 Public Interest Fellows". Greenberg Traurig. February 19, 2014. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  21. Meyer, Dani. "Revenues Soar At Baker Botts, Greenberg Traurig - Law360". Law360. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  22. March 07, Monika Gonzalez Mesa |; AM, 2017 at 09:49. "Greenberg Traurig grows revenue and partner profits as firm gears up for efficiency push". LegalWeek. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  23. "Greenberg Traurig, LLP|Company Profile|Vault.com". Vault. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  24. "Greenberg Traurig". Law.com. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  25. "Feds link close pal of Daley to hiring", Chicago Tribune
  26. "Routine Maintenance". law.com.
  27. "Matter of Gordon (2006 NY Slip Op 08075)". state.ny.us.
  28. Nama Holdings, LLC v. Greenberg Traurig LLP, Index No. 601054/08 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Nov. 18, 2008)
  29. "Routine Maintenance". law.com.
  30. "Couple Sues New Yorker & Greenberg Traurig", from Court House News Service
  31. House panel can't mix SEC subpoena in insider-trading probe, Law 360, Cara Silvatore, November 16, 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  32. House Panel intervenes in SEC's Insider Trading Investigation, Shepherd, Finkleman, Miller & Shah, Casey Yamasaki, November 17, 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  33. House, SEC Drop Health Care Subpoena Fight At 2nd Circuit, Law 360, Martin O'Sullivan, November 14, 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  34. Schmidt, Michael S.; Haberman, Maggie (May 10, 2018). "Giuliani's Law Firm Undercuts His Statements as They Part Ways". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 4, 2019.


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