Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

The firm was founded in 1965 by Herbert Wachtell and Jerry Kern, who were shortly afterwards joined by Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz.[2] The four named partners met at New York University School of Law where they were editors on the New York University Law Review together.[3] The firm rose to prominence on Wall Street when many brokers and investment bankers were launching small firms, but received little attention from established white-shoe law firms, such as Sullivan & Cromwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.[2]

One of the founding partners, Martin Lipton, invented the so-called "poison pill defense" during the 1980s, to foil hostile takeovers.[2] Working both sides of mergers and acquisitions, Wachtell Lipton has represented blue-chip clients such as AT&T, Pfizer, and JP Morgan Chase.[4] It has had key roles in the resurrection of Chrysler in the 1970s, the acquisition of Getty Oil by Texaco, and the negotiation of the master development agreement for the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks.[5] The firm is also known for its business litigation, and has represented clients in many of the precedent-setting Delaware corporate governance cases.[6]

The firm placed #41 on The American Lawyer's 2021 AmLaw 200 ranking. On the 2021 Global 200 survey, Wachtell Lipton Rosen Katz ranked as the 50th highest grossing law firm in the world.[1]

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is considered to be the top firm in the United States for major mergers and acquisitions.[5] While many peer law firms have grown and become international brands, Wachtell has only a single, Manhattan office. It is one of the smallest firms in the AmLaw 100, but has the second highest per partner profits of any law firm and pays significantly above the "Cravath scale" market rate for associates.[20] The firm pays its partners through a lockstep system, meaning that compensation is tied to firm seniority, rather than hours billed or business brought in.[21] The same is true for associate bonuses. This compensation model has led to the firm being called the "last true partnership."[21]

Along with Skadden, Arps, it was also cited in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.[22] By the early 1990s, Wachtell was regarded as the "hardest firm in the U.S. to get a job in."[23] As of 2020, the U.S. News & World Report has ranked Wachtell as a tier 1 law firm in national and regional rankings in several practice areas: Banking and Finance Law, Corporate Law, Litigation, and Mergers & Acquisitions.[24]

• William T. Allen, of counsel — former Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery; New York University School of Law professor
• Anthony J. Casey, associate — University of Chicago Law School professor
• James Cole, partner — Acting Deputy Secretary of Education
• Allison Christians, associate — H. Heward Stikeman chair in Taxation, McGill University Faculty of Law
• George T. Conway III, associate and partner — lawyer for Paula Jones in sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, founder of The Lincoln Project, husband of Kellyanne Conway
• Miguel Estrada — attorney and former judicial nominee
• Glenn Greenwald, associate — political activist, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize recipient[25]
• Maura R. Grossman, of counsel — research professor and former director of Women in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo; electronic discovery attorney[26]
• Elizabeth Holtzman, associate — former U.S. Representative and Brooklyn District Attorney
• Robert J. Jackson Jr., associate — Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• David Lat, associate — blogger, Underneath Their Robes and Above the Law
• Kenneth K. Lee, associate — judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit[27]
• Matt Levine, associate — attorney, investment banker, and writer[28]
• Robert T. Miller, associate — University of Iowa College of Law professor
• Robert Morgenthau, of counsel — former New York County District Attorney[29]
• Bernard Nussbaum, partner — former White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton
• George Postolos, associate — former President and CEO of Houston Rockets
• Samuel Rascoff, associate — New York University School of Law professor
• Jed Rubenfeld, associate — Yale Law School professor
• Andrew Schlafly, associate — founder of Conservapedia, General Counsel for Association of American Physicians and Surgeons[30]
• Richard J. Sullivan, associate — judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit[31]
• Leo E. Strine Jr., of counsel – former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery; University of Pennsylvania Law School professor
• Sheena Wright, associate – former CEO of United Way of New York City, Deputy Mayor of New York City under Eric Adams

• List of largest law firms by profits per partner
• White shoe firms