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Davis Polk
International law firm headquartered in New York City From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, commonly known as Davis Polk, is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C., Menlo Park, London, Madrid, Brussels, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, and São Paulo. The firm is recognized for its work in corporate law, litigation, tax, and financial regulation. Davis Polk operates as an all-equity partnership and consistently ranks among the most profitable law firms in the world, with profits per partner exceeding $7 million.
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History
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Davis Polk traces its origin to a one-man practice in Manhattan opened by a 21-year-old lawyer, Francis N. Bangs. The firm changed its name several times to account for new partners, using names such as Bangs & Stetson; Bangs, Stetson, Tracey & MacVeagh,, Stetson, Jennings & Russell, and Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed.[2] Towards the end of the 19th century, J. P. Morgan hired Francis Stetson, then name partner of the firm, as his chief counsel. During Stetson's tenure, the firm helped Morgan to restructure the Pennsylvania Railroad as well as create General Electric. The modern incarnations of Morgan's business, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, have remained key clients of the firm. Among other high-profile lawyers, President Grover Cleveland served as a member of the firm during the interval between his two non-consecutive presidential terms.[3]
From 1945 to 1965, Davis Polk was known amongst legal circles as a White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant (WASP) law firm that would not hire Jewish attorneys.[4]
In 1971, Lydia Kess was the first woman to be promoted to partner, becoming the second female partner at a major Wall Street law firm.[5]
During the 2008 financial crisis, the firm represented many government clients, including the United States Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the firm had important roles in the AIG, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and Citigroup matters, as well as in the drafting of the Dodd–Frank Act.[6][7]
In 2009, to bolster its financial regulatory practice, the firm hired three former Securities and Exchange Commission officials: Commissioner Annette Nazareth, Director of Enforcement Linda Chatman Thomsen, and Deputy Director of Trading and Markets Robert Colby—as well as former White House Staff Secretary Raul Yanes and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation General Counsel John Douglas.[8]
In November 2023, amid a wave of protests calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war at elite U.S. law schools, Davis Polk & Wardwell was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences: "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."[9] The letter was criticized by a coalition of Muslim bar associations, which accused the firms of contributing to Islamophobia, a chilling effect of free speech and Pro-Palestine speech, and a climate of fear.[10]
In January 2025, Neil Barr, chair and managing partner of Davis Polk, discussed the rationale behind the firm's switch from a pure lock-step compensation model to a more performance-based system. He emphasized that increased employee mobility required a compensation structure tied to incentives and firm cohesion, an effort to balance market competitiveness with maintaining firm culture.[11]
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Recognitions
In March 2007, Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) awarded Davis Polk its Heroes Honors 25th Anniversary Award for the corporate pro bono work the firm has done on the organization's behalf.[12]
In 2010, Davis Polk was ranked third in Revenue per Lawyer by the American Lawyer's top 100 National Firms.[13] In 2012 and 2013, Davis Polk was named America's Law Firm of the Year by the International Financial Law Review.[14]
The firm placed 15th on The American Lawyer's 2021 AmLaw 200 ranking,[1] and, on the 2021 Global 200 survey, Davis Polk ranked as the 20th highest grossing law firm in the world.[1]
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Notable attorneys and alumni
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 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2012) |
Current attorneys
Among its current partners and counsel are:
- Uzo Asonye – former Deputy Chief of the Financial Crimes and Public Corruption office of the Eastern District of Virginia and member of the office of special counsel Robert Mueller
- Jon Leibowitz – former chairman, Federal Trade Commission
- Gary Lynch – former director, Enforcement Division, Securities and Exchange Commission, and former vice-chairman and Chief Legal Officer, Morgan Stanley, former vice-chairman, Credit Suisse, and former Global General Counsel, Bank of America
- Neil MacBride – former U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia
- Annette Nazareth – former commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission
- Howard Shelanski – former administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- Linda Chatman Thomsen – former director, Enforcement Division, Securities and Exchange Commission
Former attorneys
Judiciary
- Ronnie Abrams – U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York[15]
- Thomas J. Aquilino – Senior Judge, U.S. Court of International Trade
- Richard M. Berman – U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York
- Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum – Senior U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York[16]
- Denny Chin – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, Second Circuit Court of Appeals
- Hardy Cross Dillard – International Court of Justice
- Warren Eginton – Senior U.S. District Court Judge, District of Connecticut
- Thomas P. Griesa – Senior U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York
- Cheryl Ann Krause – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, Third Circuit Court of Appeals
- J. Michael Luttig – former U.S. Circuit Court Judge, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
- Amy J. St. Eve – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
- Louis L. Stanton – Senior U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York
- John M. Walker Jr. – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, Second Circuit Court of Appeals
- Lawrence Edward Walsh – former U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of New York
Elected office
- John Danforth – former U.S. Senator (R-MO) and Ambassador to the United Nations
- Kirsten Gillibrand – U.S. Senator (D-NY)
- Ben McAdams – U.S. Representative, Utah's 4th congressional district
- Terri Sewell – U.S. Representative, Alabama's 7th congressional district
- Chen Show Mao – Member of Singaporean Parliament, Aljunied Group Representation Constituency, Workers' Party of Singapore[17]
- Mondaire Jones – former U.S. Representative, New York's 17th congressional district[18]
- Zellnor Myrie - New York State Senator, New York's 20th State Senate district[19]
Law enforcement and financial regulation
| This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2016) |
- Jerome Powell – chairman of the Federal Reserve[20]
- Randal Quarles – vice-chairman for Supervision, Federal Reserve[21]
- Paul S. Atkins – former commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission[22]
- Roger W. Ferguson Jr. – former vice-chairman, Federal Reserve System; President & CEO, TIAA-CREF[23]
- Robert B. Fiske – Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York[24]
- Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr. – Former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York[25]
- Charles E. F. Millard – former director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation[26]
- Ogden Livingston Mills – former Secretary of the Treasury
- Lawrence Edward Walsh – former Deputy Attorney General and Independent Counsel, Iran-Contra Investigation
- Kenneth Wainstein – former Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, Department of Justice, and former Homeland Security Advisor[27]
Other government service
- John Bridgeland – former director, United States Domestic Policy Council[28]
- John W. Davis – former United States Solicitor General; Democratic Presidential Nominee, 1924
- Reuben Jeffery III – Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State
- Charles MacVeagh – former United States Ambassador to Japan
- Richard Moe – president, National Trust for Historic Preservation[29]
- Jennifer Newstead – legal advisor, U.S. Department of State and Former General Counsel, Office of Management and Budget
- Frank Polk – former acting U.S. Secretary of State
- Peter Tufo – former United States Ambassador to Hungary[30]
- John E. Zuccotti – former deputy mayor, New York City; namesake of Zuccotti Park[31]
Business
- Alexander Cushing – founder and chairman, Ski Corporation[32]
- Eli Whitney Debevoise – founding partner, Debevoise & Plimpton[33]
- Tom Glocer – CEO, Thomson Reuters
- Steven Goldstone – former president & CEO, RJR Nabisco
- Robert Harrison – CEO, Clinton Global Initiative[34]
- Lewis B. Kaden – vice chairman, Citigroup[35]
- H. F. Lenfest – founder, Lenfest Communications
- Charles Li – Chinese banker, former CEO of Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- J. Michael Luttig – general counsel, Boeing
- Axel Miller – chairman & CEO, Dexia S.A.
- David Schwimmer – CEO, London Stock Exchange
- Francis Lynde Stetson – Attorney for John Pierpont Morgan; former president, New York State Bar Association.[36]
- Andrew Yang – entrepreneur, founder of Venture for America, and 2020 presidential candidate
- Reshma Saujani – founder of Girls Who Code
Media and entertainment
- He Li – Chinese poet
Academia
- George Bermann – director, European Legal Studies Center, Columbia Law School
- Charles Black – professor, Yale Law School
- Brian Casey – president, Colgate University
- Noah Feldman – professor, Harvard Law School
- Victor Fleischer – professor, University of California, Irvine School of Law
- Barry E. Friedman – vice dean, New York University School of Law
- Linda Lorimer – vice president, Yale University
- Jane B. Korn – dean, Gonzaga University School of Law
- Julie O'Sullivan – professor, Georgetown University Law Center
- Saule Omarova – professor, Cornell Law School
- Jeannie Suk – professor, Harvard Law School
- David Schizer – professor & dean, Columbia Law School[37]
- David E. Van Zandt – president, The New School, Former Dean, Northwestern University School of Law
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See also
References
Further reading
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