Proskauer Rose

Proskauer Rose is a full-service law firm, practicing in areas including corporate finance, private investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions, bankruptcy and reorganizations, taxation, litigation, trusts and estates, intellectual property, and labor and employment law. Its clients include participants in many industries, including chemicals, entertainment, financial services, health care, hospitality, information technology, insurance, internet, manufacturing, media and communications, pharmaceuticals, real estate investment, sports, and transportation.

Proskauer Rose is known for its sports law department, with clients including all four of the major sports leagues in the US and Canada (MLB, the NFL, the NHL, and the NBA).[1] In December 2006, The Legal U.S. 500's annual ranking of the top law firms for corporate work singled Proskauer out for excellence in private equity, international M&A, high-yield debt and hedge fund formation.[2]

Throughout its history, the firm's headquarters has been located in the area of Times Square, in midtown Manhattan, where it grew from fewer than a dozen lawyers originally to nearly 800. A full-service practice, it is currently among the ten largest law firms in New York City.

William R. Rose started the firm that is now Proskauer Rose when, at 21 years of age, he opened a law firm on Broadway in Downtown Manhattan in 1875.[5] In 1907, Rose promoted associate Benjamin Paskus to partner and renamed the firm Rose & Paskus.[5] Rose & Paskus was one of the first firms to develop a specialized tax practice after the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913.[5] In 1930, Judge Joseph M. Proskauer resigned his position on New York's Appellate Division to join the firm, which was then renamed Proskauer, Rose & Paskus.[5] The firm shortened its name to Proskauer Rose in 1997.[6]

Proskauer Rose is historically known as a "Jewish law firm" for its willingness to cross traditional historic and cultural hiring norms that other major New York City law firms were unwilling to do at the time.[7] Because of its willingness to employ Jewish lawyers, Proskauer is not known as a traditional "white shoe" law firm, though over the past quarter-century it has gained the reputation as one of the "new white shoe" law firms.[7] Thus it cannot rely on long-standing ties to old money or big investment banks. Rather, the firm has historically focused its practice on labor and employment law, as well as building up significant litigation, health care, sports and entertainment, bankruptcy, and taxation practices.[6]

In December 2004, a large group of lawyers from the Boston-based law firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault joined the Boston office of Proskauer Rose.

11 Times Square photographed from the southeast corner of West 41st Street and Eighth Avenue.

In February 2012, Proskauer Rose increased its gross revenue by 6.4 percent to $686 million and its average profits per partner 9 percent to $1.7 million, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.[8] In 2013, Proskauer Rose again increased its revenue by more than 7%, to over $700 million. These figures place Proskauer Rose as one of the fastest growing law firms in the United States. The firm's robust financial performance came amid a busy year for office moves. The most significant shuffle saw Proskauer move its New York headquarters to 11 Times Square in January, 2011. With more than 400,000 square feet of space spread across 14 floors, the firm is the new building's anchor tenant—with its name splashed across the facade in a 40-foot-by-10-foot backlit sign.

Proskauer's pro bono clients include nonprofit organizations, community groups, woman- & minority-owned small businesses, refugees seeking asylum, gender-based & domestic violence survivors, disabled veterans, artists and musicians, and LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected individuals, among many others. The firm's attorneys typically spend upwards of 60,000 hours per year working on pro bono matters, and expects all attorneys to contribute 50 hours or more per year towards pro bono and public interest matters.[9]

In 2012, Proskauer won an important victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling that the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA), which reduced the disparity in federal sentencing between crack and powder cocaine offenses, applies to defendants who were sentenced after its passage even though their offenses pre-dated the law. The firm is also noted for hosting an Election Protection call center during every election cycle since the 2012 Presidential election.[10]

In 2010, Proskauer received the Law Firm Pro Bono Award at the William O. Douglas Award Dinner in Los Angeles, sponsored by Public Counsel, the United States' largest pro bono public interest law firm.[11] The firm has also notably represented New York City Housing Authority tenants alongside the National Resources Defense Council and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice in ongoing class action litigation to secure safe and healthy housing for hundreds of thousands of New York public housing residents.[12]

In April 2006, Proskauer launched the "National Pro Bono Initiative." This program included bringing together representatives from all of the firm's major practice groups and offices, and hiring certain individuals to exclusively engage in pro bono endeavors, culminating in the inclusion of a full-time pro bono partner, counsel, and paralegal. The purpose of the program is to encourage widespread and sustained participation in pro bono work, so that it will be approached on a long-term, national, and international basis.

In 2019, Proskauer was named to The National Law Journal's "Pro Bono Hot List."[13]

According to a study by Yale Law Women (co-sponsored by women's law groups at Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley, Northwestern, and Virginia), Proskauer Rose ranked second in their list of top ten family-friendly firms of 2007.[14]

In 2007, Proskauer Rose was named among the top United States firms practicing corporate and finance law in The Legal 500 US Volume I: Corporate & Finance, a ranking of the "best of the best" U.S. law firms. Proskauer was named a leader in the following categories: Private Equity; International Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Markets; Investment Funds - Alternative/Hedge Fund Formation.[15]

In 2008, Proskauer was named the fastest-growing law firm for the third consecutive year in Boston Business Journal's annual ranking of the area's 100 largest law firms. With the addition of 25 lawyers since January 2007 - a 30-percent growth rate - the firm is ranked 17th in the year' survey.[16]

Fifteen lawyers from Proskauer Rose were named in Southern California Super Lawyers 2008, an annual guide to the top lawyers in the region (the firm was represented in 10 different practice areas).[17] Selections for Southern California Super Lawyers are based on peer nominations and independent research by the editors of Law & Politics magazine.[17]

Proskauer Rose received the 2003 Special Award of Merit by the New York Women's Bar Association for its contribution to the advancement of women.

• Proskauer Rose represented Silverstein Properties, owner of the World Trade Center towers in New York that were destroyed by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, in a dispute with its insurers.[18]
• The firm won a copyright case in 2006 when they represented the rock band The White Stripes against a former producer regarding the ownership rights in the band's first two albums.[19]
• The firm represented the League of American Theatres and Producers during the stagehands strike in the fall of 2007.[20][21]
• The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) hired Proskauer in 2009 to conduct an investigation into its operations and write a report regarding the undercover video controversy.[22]
• In 2015, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver employed the firm to purchase a $9.5million Manhattan penthouse using several shell companies set up on his behalf by the firm, taking advantage of a tax loophole called 421-a to reduce his property tax bill by as much as $300,000.[23][24]
• In 2017, Proskauer Rose represented Celgene in its $9 billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Juno Therapeutics.[25]
• In 2019, Proskauer Rose represented the Big East Conference as it readmitted the University of Connecticut back to the Big East.[26]

• Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the National Hockey League
• Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs
• Michael A. Cardozo, former President of the New York City Bar Association
• Robert A. Gorman (born 1937), law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Sylvan Gotshal, co-founder of Weil, Gotshal & Manges
• David Kahn, President of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves
• Steven C. Krane, partner and general counsel
• Doug Perlman, founder of Sports Media Advisors
• Moose Scheib, founder and CEO of LoanMod.com
• David Stern, Commissioner of the National Basketball Association
• Frank Weil, co-founder of Weil, Gotshal & Manges
• Joseph M. Proskauer, New York Supreme Court judge and name partner of the firm

• List of largest United States-based law firms by profits per partner

• Official website
• Proskauer Rose organizational profile at the National Law Review.