|
Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP is a national law firm founded in Philadelphia in 1849 by John Christian Bullitt. The firm has 620 lawyers located in 11 offices in the United States: Philadelphia; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Florham Park; Princeton; New York City; Albany; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Milwaukee; and Wilmington. Drinker Biddle also maintains an office in London. The firm maintains a broad range of practices, including commercial litigation, corporate and securities, corporate restructuring, government and regulatory affairs, labor and employment, environmental, communications litigation, products liability and mass tort litigation, healthcare, employee benefits and executive compensation, insurance coverage, investment management, life insurance and annuities, intellectual property and real estate.〔 ''Corporate Board Member'' magazine ranked Drinker Biddle as the #4 corporate law firm in the Philadelphia market (2005).〔(Microsoft Word - Corporate Board Member.doc )〕 ==Firm History== John Christian Bullitt, a young lawyer from a prominent Kentucky political family, arrived in Philadelphia in 1849 and within a few months had opened the law offices of Bullitt and Fairthorne, Attorneys at Law. Bullitt's first client was the Bank of Kentucky. Bullitt would go on to become a significant civic figure in Philadelphia, serving as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1873, and drafting the "Bullitt Bill" which eventually became the Philadelphia City Charter in 1887. He also founded the Fourth Street National Bank in 1886, and in 1871 he oversaw the brokerage firm merger that created Drexel, Morgan & Co., later renamed J.P. Morgan & Co.. In 1863, Samuel Dickson joined Bullitt's firm. Dickson would begin a long relationship between the firm and the University of Pennsylvania, acting as counsel to the university and serving on its board of trustees from 1881 until his death in 1915. Together, Bullitt and Dickson created one of the most successful and lucrative law offices in Philadelphia. The partners who gave the firm its modern name joined in the first part of the 20th century. Henry S. Drinker Jr. joined the firm in 1904, became a partner in 1918, and was named counsel to the University of Pennsylvania in 1927. From the 1920s until the 1950s, Drinker was the executive voice of the firm. Charles J. Biddle joined the firm in 1924 as the firm's first lateral partner, bringing from his former firm several significant clients, including the Philadelphia Contributionship (the nation's oldest property insurance company, founded by Benjamin Franklin) and the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (at the time the third largest savings bank in the United States). Biddle became a partner in 1925 and was a major force at the firm for decades. In the 1950s, Biddle argued successfully for the acquittal of Merck Sharp & Dohme in one of the firm’s first major price fixing cases. Thomas Reath joined the firm in 1919. In 1940, W. Averell Harriman sought Reath's assistance in reopening Philadelphia's Cramp shipyard, and Reath and other lawyers at the firm negotiated a compromise on a $1 million tax lien to facilitate the reopening. The yard was used to construct submarines and cruisers for the U.S. Navy during World War II. At the turn of the 21st century, Drinker Biddle initiated a series of mergers that significantly raised its national profile. In 1999, it merged with the prominent New Jersey general practice firm of Shanley & Fisher, P.C. In 2001, Drinker Biddle merged with two more firms, the Philadelphia intellectual property firm of Seidel, Gonda, Lavorgna & Monaco and the San Francisco firm of Preuss Shanagher Zvoleff & Zimmer. The most significant union came in 2007, when the firm merged with Chicago’s Gardner Carton & Douglas, giving Drinker Biddle a stronger presence in the Midwest and adding expertise in health law, employee benefits and executive compensation, hedge funds, and government and regulatory affairs. The Gardner merger also made Drinker Biddle, in terms of number of attorneys, one of the 75 largest law firms in the United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=The American Lawyer )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Drinker Biddle & Reath」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|