Greenberg Traurig (world rank # 11)

Friday, November 6, 2009


Greenberg Traurig

Greenberg Traurig LLP

Greenberg Traurig
Greenberg Traurig
HeadquartersMiami, Florida
No. of Offices35 total (8 international)
No. of Attorneys1,800
Key PeopleCesar L. Alvarez, CEO
Larry J. Hoffman, Chairman
Date Founded1967
Company TypeLimited liability partnership
Websitegtlaw.com

is an international law firm with approximately 1,800 attorneys and governmental professionals in 32 locations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Its founding office is in Miami, Florida with its largest office in New York City. In the U.K., the firm operates as Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP. Additionally, Greenberg Traurig has strategic alliances with the following independent law firms: Studio Santa Maria in Milan and Rome and TA Lawyers GKJ in Tokyo. In Asia, the firm maintains an office in Shanghai, China. Greenberg Traurig is the seventh largest American law firm based on number of lawyers. Greenberg Traurig is managed by its Chief Executive Officer, Cesar L. Alvarez, and its Chairman and Founder, Larry J. Hoffman, from its Miami, Florida office, the firm's historic base of operations and administrativeheadquarters.
As of 2009, it was ranked 66th in the United States in the Vault law firm prestige rankings.
As of 2006, it was the 16th largest law firm in the world by revenue.
As of 2008, it was the 8th largest law firm in the United States by revenue.[1]
In 2007, the firm was selected as Chambers and Partners as US Law Firm of the Year for excellence in legal services in jurisdictions around the world.[2]

History

[edit]Formation and growth

Greenberg, Traurig and Hoffman was founded in Miami, Florida in 1967 by attorneys Lawrence J. Hoffman, Mel Greenberg, and Robert Traurig. The firm initially had only one associate and one junior partner, and had no plans of expanding outside the Miami metropolitan area. As recently as 1991 it only had two offices, in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
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 partners.[3]
For a brief while, Zachary Wolff was a named partner. Former Florida governor [Reubin Askew] was a named partner in the early 1980s while he also sought the Democratic nomination for president.
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.[4] Much of the firm's growth was achieved by handpicking lawyers compatible with the firm's goals.[5] The firm claims that this tactic allows the firm to grow without diluting its business-oriented, 'built for change' culture, a unique outlook on the practice of law that is uncommon among other major firms.[5] During the past decade, the firm grew by over 800 percent and New York became its largest center of business.[6]
In July 2009, Greenberg Traurig announced that it entered the London market forming a new UK firm, operating as Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP. Paul Maher joined as the founding member and chairman of the London office. [7]

[edit]Greenberg Traurig today

The firm has grown from a small office in Florida to one of the largest and most prestigious firms in the U.S. and the World. In 2007 The firm received a No. 1 ranking for Bankruptcy/Restructuring; Construction; Corporate/M&A; Immigration; Labor & Employment; Litigation: General Commercial; Litigation: White Collar Crime & Government Investigations; Real Estate; Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use; Retail; Tax and Wealth Management. Chambers & Partners USA Guide, an annual listing of the leading business lawyers and law firms in the world, lists 111 Greenberg Traurig LLP attorneys in its 2007–2008 guide. Individual attorneys further received a No. 1 ranking in Litigation: Appellate; Litigation: General Commercial; Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations; Bankruptcy/Restructuring; Corporate/M&A; Real Estate; Construction; Tax: Employee Benefits; Immigration; Tax; Labor & Employment; and Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use.[8] Greenberg Traurig also emerged by a wide margin as the top trademark litigator in the United States in 2008.[9] In addition, Greenberg Traurig is widely-viewed as having the nation's leading Entertainment Law practice, particularly with regard to matters pertaining to the music industry.

[edit]Pro Bono

[edit]Fellows Program

The Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation sponsors Equal Justice Works to support legal fellows across the country for the provision of pro bono legal services to community programs. These public interest law fellowships begin each September and run for two years.
The Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation was established in 1997. Since then, Greenberg Traurig has sponsored, in whole or in part, more than 85 fellows who have worked on public interest projects in many of the communities in which the firm practices. Through Equal Justice Works, the Greenberg Traurig Fellowships offer salary and loan repayment assistance, a national training and leadership development program, and other forms of support.[10]

[edit]Family Court Program

The Family Court Legal Services Project is a discrete pro bono program where attorneys from law firms and corporations provide advice and counsel during 30-minute one-on-one sessions to pro se litigants who come to family court on matters involving child support, visitation,custody, guardianship and paternity.
Greenberg Traurig LLP helped spearhead the New York City Family Court Legal Services Project, which provides low-income litigants in family court with free legal advice.[11]

[edit]Controversies

[edit]Lobbying and Jack Abramoff scandal (Washington, DC)

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. A Greenberg spokesman said that its federal lobbying revenue in 2005 was 1 percent of its total revenues of $860 million.
In 2000, before Abramoff joined the firm, Greenberg had $3.3 million in lobbying fees. After he joined in 2001, the firm took in $16.2 million in fees. By 2002, that number jumped to $17.7 million, and $25.5 million by 2003.[12] The firm became one of the top 10 of Washington lobbying firms, moving from 16th place to fourth, according to the National Journal. [13]
In early 2004 Greenberg Traurig fired lobbyist Jack Abramoff and subsequently received praise from federal investigators and members of Congress for its cooperation in the Abramoff investigation, according to the ABA Journal.[14]
On July 12, 2006, the Alabama-Coushatta tribe filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against now-convicted Abramoff and his cohorts. Greenberg Traurig was not a named defendant, but the tribe began discussing a settlement payment by the firm later that month. Its lawsuit states that "There was a nexus between Greenberg, the enterprise and the pattern of racketeering." According to the suit, internal Greenberg e-mails showed that Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon, although not a member of the firm, "billed hours to tribal clients through Greenberg and that members of the law firm, including attorneys Kevin Ring, Shawn Vasell, Stephanie Leger, Todd Boulanger and others, fabricated hours and time entries for Scanlon." The suit also says the firm allowed checks sent by the tribe to a bogus Abramoff-linked think tank to be funneled and cashed through Greenberg Traurig.[12]
In March 2008, prosecutors in Guam indicted Greenberg Traurig on felony counts of allegedly making improper billings to Guam's superior court under the guise of charging for lobbying services by Jack Abramoff [15]. In April 2008, the charges of deception, theft and conspiracy were dismissed by Guam prosecutors after Greenberg Traurig agreed to refund $324,000 in lobbying fees to the Guam judiciary [16].

[edit]Other controversies

  • In July 2009, Steve P. Hassid, an attorney currently associated with Greenberg Traurig's Los Angeles office, was named in a lawsuit[17] filed against law firm Sheppard Mullin alleging that papers he filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in 2003 while employed as an associate at Sheppard Mullin contained false representations.[18] In October 2009, Professor John R. Thomas of Georgetown Law concluded, as part of his expert testimony in that lawsuit, that Hassid and thereby his former firm Sheppard Mullin "engaged in fraudulent and inequitable conduct while filing the reexamination requests."[19]
  • In November 2008, a New York State court refused to dismiss a suit alleging that Robert J. Ivanhoe, chairman of Greenberg Traurig's New York office and 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.[20] 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 said that the allegations were "without merit" and that it would appeal the ruling.[21]
  • In June 2006, Greenberg Traurig agreed to pay the FDIC $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 theOffice 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."[22]
  • 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.[23]
  • In December 2005, Leonard Ross, an attorney associated with Greenberg Traurig's Philadelphia office, was charged with fraud and corruption as part of an FBI investigation into city government. Ross was a friend and former law partner of Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street: Federal prosecutors alleged that Ross's employment at Greenberg was "entirely dependent on his relationship with Mayor Street" and "a motive for selling his office as a PLC [Penns Landing Corporation] board member." [24]
  • In 2001, Victor Reyes, a political operative who headed the Hispanic Democratic Organization and had close ties to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, 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 AttorneyPatrick 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 in September federal prosecutors indicted five city employees, including a former Reyes aide, in the scandal. Reyes wasn't charged, but prosecutors called him as a "co-schemer" in the indictment [25]. Greenberg CEO Cesar L. Alvarez 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 pled 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. Greenberg Traurig professed surprise at Grossman's arrest the following November for failing to report to prison, and stated that Grossman hadn't disclosed the criminal proceeding to the firm. Greenberg has stated that it now does background checks on all new employees.[27]
  • In January 2007, the firm was sued in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County, by Yasmin Marinaro, a former legal assistant, for discrimination and retaliatory termination. Among other things, Ms. Marinaro's complaint alleges that Harley Lewin, Esq., former head of the firm's Trademarks and Global Brand Strategies Practice, referred to Ms. Marinaro as "Chiquita Banana", and that he subsequently sought to prevent her from reporting his behavior. The lawsuit also names Stacey P. Dougan, Esq., Assistant General Counsel to the firm, as an individual defendant.[28]
  • In December 2008, the firm and several current and former firm attorneys (Harley Lewin, Steven Wadyka and Janet Shih-Hajek) 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. The Snyders' complaint alleges, among other things, that the Greenberg attorneys made false statements to the court when applying for a search warrant and that one (Wadyka) impersonated a federal officer by flashing a badge and stating that he was with the office of the U.S. Attorney. The suit also alleges that the attorneys failed to post a required bond and that the search of the Snyders' home exceeded the scope of the warrant and resulted in the seizure of many personal items. The suit also alleges that the firm's attorneys improperly brought New Yorker staff reporter MacFarquhar, who was profiling Lewin for a forthcoming article, into the Snyders' home while conducting their raid in December 2006 pursuant to the search warrant.[29]

[edit]Offices

[edit]North America

Greenberg Traurig's largest office is in the MetLife Building inNew York City. The New York office is one of many offices founded in the 1990s, when GT expanded from a local Miami firm to become one of the largest in the United States.
Greenberg Traurig headquarters in Miami

[edit]Europe

[edit]Asia

[edit]References

  1. ^ Two Firms Pass the $2 Billion Mark
  2. ^ Greenberg Traurig Selected by Chambers and Partners as USA Law Firm of the Year - Greenberg Traurig, LLP
  3. ^ gtlaw.com
  4. ^ Greenberg Traurig Endows the Larry J. Hoffman Greenberg Traurig Distinguished Professorship
  5. ^ a b Hire Talent
  6. ^ Greenberg Traurig, LLP
  7. ^ Focus: Greenberg Traurig Maher, The Lawyer [1]
  8. ^ Chambers and Partners : Chambers USA Guide Rankings
  9. ^ Greenberg Traurig No. 1 in Trademark Filings for 4th Consecutive Year in CSC Trademark Insider Rankings - Greenberg Traurig, LLP
  10. ^ Equal Justice Works Fellows for Class of 2007
  11. ^ Making Seven Minutes Count
  12. ^ a b Greenberg Traurig Has Big Incentive to Make Talks With Tribe Work
  13. ^ www.bizforward.com
  14. ^ www.abajournal.com
  15. ^ Greenberg Traurig Indicted in Guam
  16. ^ Felony Charges in Guam Dropped Against Greenberg Traurig
  17. ^ [2]
  18. ^ [Liz Mackenzie, Inventor's Re-exam Suit a Federal Issue: Calif. Court, LAW 360, May 1, 2009]
  19. ^ [http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit.asp?id=48812>
  20. ^ Nama Holdings, LLC v. Greenberg Traurig LLP, Index No. 601054/08 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Nov. 18, 2008)
  21. ^ Lawsuit Proceeds Against Greenberg Traurig, Real Estate Head
  22. ^ Will the Corporate Model Backfire on Greenberg?
  23. ^ www.courts.state.ny.us
  24. ^ Will the Corporate Model Backfire on Greenberg?
  25. ^ Feds link close pal of Daley to hiring
  26. ^ Will the Corporate Model Backfire on Greenberg?
  27. ^ Will the Corporate Model Backfire on Greenberg?
  28. ^ Lawsuit of the Day: Marinaro v. Greenberg Traurig LLP, from Above the Law (blog)
  29. ^ "Couple Sues New Yorker & Greenberg Traurig", from Court House News Service

[edit]External links




Posted by talat yasmeen at 9:39 PM  

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
 
 
 

ShoutMix chat widget