Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Sidley Austin

U.S.-based corporate law firm From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. It was established in 1866 and its headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop.[1] It is one of the largest law firms in the world in terms of revenue.

Quick Facts Headquarters, No. of offices ...
Remove ads

History

Summarize
Perspective
Thumb
Headquarters of Sidley Austin at One South Dearborn

1866–1900s: Origins in Chicago

In 1866, Norman Williams and John L. Thompson founded the law firm of Williams & Thompson in Chicago, Illinois. William Pratt Sidley, who had joined the firm in 1892, was added to the firm's name in 1900 when it was renamed Holt, Wheeler & Sidley. Edwin C. Austin joined the firm in 1914.[8]

Among the firm's first clients were the Pullman Company, the manufacturer of specialty sleeping railway cars, as well as Western Electric and Illinois Steel.[8]

1900s: Expansion and consolidation

In 1963, former postmaster general J. Edward Day left the administration of President John F. Kennedy to establish the firm's Washington, D.C. office.[9] Initial clients included the Advertising Mail Marketing Association.[10]

In 1972, the firm merged with the 50 lawyers of Chicago firm Leibman, Williams, Bennett, Baird & Minow. Additional offices were then established in London, Los Angeles, Singapore and New York. Following the merger, Washington D.C. partner Day resigned and later sued the firm, In a 1974 lawsuit, Day alleged that the merger represented a "breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, conspiracy, wrongful dissolution or ouster of co-partner and breach of partnership agreement." The suit was later dismissed with prejudice.[11]

In 1985, U.S. Solicitor General Rex E. Lee founded Sidley Austin's Appellate Practice Group to represent clients in all appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and state appellate and supreme courts. Following Lee's death, the group was led by Carter Phillips, who has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than any lawyer in private practice.[12]

Sidley & Austin was among several law firms involved in the Savings & Loan Crisis; the firm paid $7.5 million in 1991 to settle legal malpractice claims stemming from its representation of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.[13]

2000s

In 2001, the firm merged with Brown & Wood, a New York-based law firm established in 1914 with 400 attorneys and additional domestic offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles and overseas branches in London, Beijing and Hong Kong (where it practiced English law in addition to U.S. law). Brown & Wood was known for its securities, structured finance and securitization practices. Brown & Wood had offices in the World Trade Center on floors 54 and 56-59.[14]

The combined firm planned to move into the World Trade Center; it was decorating and furnishing additional space when the September 11 attacks occurred. In July 2002, Sidley Austin moved into the Axa Equitable Center in Midtown Manhattan.[15]

In 2007, Sidley Austin agreed to pay $39 million as part of a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service, which allowed the firm to avoid criminal charges of alleged fraudulent tax shelter activities.[16] The previous year, Sidley and KPMG agreed to pay $54 million to investors who bought the shelters.[17]

Sidley Austin represented Airbus in petitioning the World Trade Organization to allow the European Union to take countermeasures against the U.S. government in response to its subsidies of Boeing, succeeding in 2019.[18] As of 2019, the firm had represented a party in approximately half of the last 550 disputes brought before the World Trade Organization.[19]

Sidley maintains offices in 21 cities worldwide,[20] adding Miami in 2022[21] and San Diego in 2024.[22]

Lobbying for Chinese tech companies

In August 2019, Politico reported that the Chinese technology company, Huawei, hired Sidley Austin to lobby on their behalf after the Trump administration set restrictions on their business transactions with the U.S. Federal Government. Trade, sanctions, export controls, "and other national security-related topics," were to be the subjects of lobbying efforts, according to reported disclosure filings.[23]

In October of 2022, Reuters and Politico reported that Sidley Austin updated its registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as a lobbyist for Hikvision USA, a California-based subsidiary of the Chinese video surveillance company, as requested by the U.S. Justice Department.[24][25] In their registration, the law firm reported having received approximately $7.4 million in fees since beginning their representation in 2018. The firm had initially registered under the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act when it was first retained by the company.[24][26]

Sidley Austin was hired by DJI Technologies in early 2024 after the drone maker was dropped by other agencies in February of that year.[27][28]

Remove ads

Rankings and recognition

Summarize
Perspective

Sidley Austin is the sixth-largest law firm in the world by revenue in 2025, according to The American Lawyer.[29] The firm has approximately 2,300 lawyers[20] and annual revenue over $3.4 billion.[29] The firm is one of the highest-paying companies in the U.S.[30][31][32]

In 2023, BTI Consulting Group named Sidley to its Client Service A-Team[33] – one of three law firms to appear in every edition of the ranking since its inception in 2001.[34] Other honors include the American Bar Association's 2019 Champions for Disability Inclusion in the Legal Profession Award.[35] and being named a 2019 "Litigation Department of the Year" finalist by The American Lawyer.[36]

The group was named a 2019 International Trade Group of the Year by Law360[37] and has been honored as "Law Firm of the Year" in Trade & Customs by Who's Who Legal for 15 consecutive years.[38] Its appellate and US Supreme Court practice has been featured in USA Today, BusinessWeek, the American Lawyer, the Legal Times, and the National Law Journal.[28]

In 2020, Sidley was named "Firm of the Year" in Capital Markets (Overseas); Corporate Compliance; Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences; and Real Estate and REIT by China Business Law Journal.[39] In 2018, Sidley was named Competition & Regulatory Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards in London.[40]

Remove ads

Pro bono work

Sidley Austin partner George Fatheree worked pro bono on behalf of the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce[41] to execute the return of beachfront land which had been seized by Los Angeles authorities in the 1920s.[42] The couple had lost the property, known as Bruce's Beach, when the state claimed it for public use and sold it to private investors.[43] It was officially restored to the couple's great grandsons, Marcus and Derrick Bruce, on July 20, 2022. The effort involved more than 1,000 hours of pro bono work.[44]

Associates and alumni

Remove ads

See also

References

External links

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads