Ropes & Gray LLP is a global law firm with 11 offices located in the United States, Asia and Europe. The firm has more than 1,200 lawyers and professionals worldwide, and its clients include corporations and financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and health care organizations. It was founded in 1865 in Boston, Massachusetts by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray.
The firm's major practice areas include private equity, mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property, complex business litigation, securities litigation, health care, life sciences, bankruptcy and business restructuring, government enforcement and white collar crime, privacy & data security, investment management, hedge funds, antitrust, employee benefits, tax, and real estate. Ropes & Gray also is recognized as a global leader in several industries, including life sciences, health care, asset management, TMT (technology, media & telecommunications) and retail.
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History
The firm was founded in 1865 by two Harvard Law School graduates, John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray. In 2003, the firm acquired New York City-based private equity law firm Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard. In 2005, the firm acquired New York-based intellectual property law firm Fish & Neave.
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Global Reach
The firm has offices in Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. Ropes & Gray's international practices have been consistently recognized by respected publications and organizations such as Chambers, Legal 500, International Financial Law Review and U.S. News - Best Lawyers.
Chambers Global recognized Ropes & Gray in 31 practices, and the firm's lawyers received 49 rankings in the 2016 edition of Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business. Chambers UK recognized 15 lawyers in six Ropes & Gray practice areas, and Chambers Asia-Pacific recognized 23 Ropes & Gray lawyers in 20 practices.
The firm's work in Asia, which focuses on private equity, M&A, life sciences and intellectual property, has received a great deal of recognition. Ropes & Gray won in all three categories it was nominated in at the 2016 International Financial Law Review (IFLR) Asia Awards. Shortlisted for private equity for the fourth consecutive year, Ropes & Gray clinched the "Private Equity Deal of the Year" award for its work on Bain Capital's acquisition of Yukiguni Maitake, along with "Private Equity Team of the Year." The firm also took home "Restructuring Deal of the Year" for the restructuring of PT Berlian Laju Tanker. At the 2016 Asian Lawyer Awards, Ropes & Gray won "M&A Deal of the Year: North Asia" and "M&A Deal of the Year" for its work on Tesco's $6.4 billion sale of Korean supermarket chain Homeplus to MBK Partners, CIPPB and Temasek. The deal was one of the largest private equity transactions of 2015, and the largest buyout in South Korea. Additionally, the annual China Business Law Awards named Ropes & Gray a "Firm of the Year" for compliance and anti-corruption in 2016.
Rankings
Ropes & Gray is highly ranked in several publications, including The Financial Times, Chambers, and The American Lawyer. For six consecutive years, 2011 through 2016, Ropes & Gray was named to The American Lawyer's "A-List" ranking of 20 top law firms based on attorney diversity, pro bono work, associate satisfaction and firm performance. In 2016, it was ranked 13th on the AmLaw 100, which ranks firms by gross revenue.
U.S. News / Best Lawyers named Ropes & Gray "Law Firm of the Year" for biotechnology and leveraged buyouts private equity. The firm also was among the 20 U.S. law firms with the most top-tier national rankings in the "Best Law Firms" survey. The firm was ranked in the first tier nationally in 27 areas, including banking and finance, biotechnology, corporate, general commercial litigation, health care, M&A, mutual funds, patent litigation, private equity, real estate, securities litigation, and tax, among others.
In 2013, Law360 named Ropes & Gray one of the five practice groups of the year for private equity, health law, securities litigation and white collar crime.
Directors & Boards magazine named Ropes & Gray one of the top 10 U.S. law firms in dealing with general corporate governance issues in its 2009 survey of "Top Corporate Governance Law Firms." Ropes & Gray was named one of the top five securities litigation firms in the United States by Law360 in 2010, 2011 and 2013. The firm also was named one of 14 "standout" securities litigation firms in a BTI Consulting Group survey of 240 corporate counsel nationwide in 2010.
The Financial Times, in the first U.S. edition of its "Innovative Lawyers" report in December 2010, highly commended Ropes & Gray for work in automotive restructuring, citing the firm's role in representing the main credit holders in the Chapter 11 case of Plastech, the largest minority-owned auto supplier in Michigan. The firm also was commended in the litigation category for two cases: advising former senior officers of Freddie Mac in numerous securities fraud class actions and derivative actions, and its lawyers' successful arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Jones v. Harris, the seminal case on mutual funds advisor fees.
In the annual Chambers USA "Award for Excellence" honoring outstanding firms that demonstrate their pre-eminence in key practice areas, Ropes & Gray was recognized as the leading U.S. law firm for intellectual property (2010) and investment funds (2009). Ropes & Gray was named a finalist for the top investment funds practice and the top healthcare practice in the U.S. in 2013.
In the 2013 Chambers USA, Ropes & Gray attorneys were recognized with 121 rankings across 43 areas of law. The firm also had 13 practice areas ranked in the top band, including banking & finance, bankruptcy/restructuring, corporate/M&A, employee benefits & executive compensation, health care, hedge & mutual funds, labor & employment, litigation: general commercial, private equity: buyouts, private equity: fund formation, tax, investment funds: registered funds, and life sciences.
Workplace recognition
Ropes & Gray has ranked among the top two law firms to work for eight consecutive years. In its 2017 guide, Vault ranked Ropes & Gray the #2 Best Law Firm to Work For, #1 for Formal Training, #1 for Firm Culture, #2 for Informal Training, #2 for Associate/Partner Relations, #3 for Satisfaction, #3 for Pro Bono and #3 for Career Outlook.
The firm is also ranked highly for its diversity. The 2017 Vault guide named Ropes & Gray the top firm in the United States for overall diversity, marking the second time in three years that the firm was ranked #1 and the eighth consecutive year that the firm was ranked in the top five for overall diversity. Additional Vault diversity category rankings included #1 for LGBT, #1 for Individuals with Disabilities, #2 for Minorities, #3 for Women and #3 for Military Veterans. The firm also earned the top rating of 100 percent in the 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), an annual survey administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. It was the eighth year in a row the firm has received the honor in recognition for its benefits and protections for LGBT employees.
The firm ranked #5 in The American Lawyer's survey of midlevel associate satisfaction among AmLaw 100 firms in 2013.
In 2014, Ropes & Gray was named the "Best Mentoring Program" by the Chambers Women in Law Awards. In addition, business & securities litigation partner Jane Willis was recognized as a finalist for the "Outstanding Contribution to Gender Diversity (Private Practice)" category.
Prominent cases
The firm's lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing Harris Associates, in a seminal case for the mutual funds industry. In March 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Harris Associates, which definitively established the standard governing claims of excessive mutual fund fees under § 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Ropes & Gray lawyers have advised on notable M&A transactions, including:
- The acquisition by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital of Clear Channel Communications, for $26 billion;
- Bain Capital's and The Blackstone Group's acquisition of The Weather Channel, in a multibillion-dollar deal;
- The sale of the Warner Music Group to Access Industries by private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee, for $3.3 billion;
- Genzyme's acquisition by Sanofi-Aventis, for $20.1 billion;
- NSTAR's merger with Northeast Utilities, for $7.1 billion;
- China Everbright's acquisition of Focus Media, for $3.7 billion;
- TPG Capital's acquisition of J.Crew, for $3 billion;
- A private equity group's acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts, for $2.4 billion;
- Berkshire Partners acquisition of Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks, for $2 billion;
- The Bare Escentuals merger with Shiseido of Japan, a $1.7 billion deal;
- Bain Capital's acquisition of MYOB, Australia's largest financial software developer.
In 2009, Ropes & Gray advised on three of the largest leveraged acquisitions of the year, on three continents. The firm advised long-term client Bain Capital on its acquisition of Bellsystem24 in the largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm in Japan in nearly two years. It also represented TPG Capital and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board in their $5.2 billion acquisition of IMS Health Inc., a leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. And the firm worked on Liberty Global Inc.'s 2.6 billion Euro high yield offering to finance the acquisition of Unity Media, a German-based provider of broadband Internet, telephone, and digital TV.
The firm also represented Genzyme Corporation on a transaction that was recognized as a "Deal of Distinction" by the Licensing Executives Society in September 2010. Ropes & Gray advised Genzyme Corporation on a complex $2.9 billion deal with Bayer Schering Pharma AG that expanded Genzyme's oncology portfolio by giving the company rights to marketed cancer drugs and control of a program in multiple sclerosis.
Pro bono activity
In 2015, Ropes & Gray lawyers devoted nearly 114,000 hours of free legal services to pro bono clients, ranging from transactional work for nonprofits to cases for low-income individuals referred by not-for-profit legal service providers. The firm and its lawyers were recognized in 2013 for pro bono work in the areas of LGBT-based and political asylum, voting rights, preserving housing for low-income seniors, and an innovative partnership between legal and medical advocates.
Ropes & Gray partner Stephen Braga represented Arkansas death row inmate Damien Echols on a pro bono basis in the high-profile "West Memphis Three" case. Echols and two other teenagers, who have maintained their innocence, were convicted of murder in 1993, and Echols was sentenced to death. In 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court granted them a new hearing because of new DNA evidence that suggested the three men were not at the scene of the crime. Before the hearing, scheduled for December 2011, however, Braga and other attorneys negotiated a deal between the defendants and prosecutors, allowing the men to go free using what is known as an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but acknowledged that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. On August 19, 2011, the three men were released from prison. The case, and Ropes & Gray's Braga, were featured on a segment of the CBS news show "48 Hours." The National Law Journal named Ropes & Gray to its 2012 "Pro Bono Hot List" in recognition of Braga's work on the West Memphis Three case.
Ropes & Gray partner Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, represents national medical organizations in a lawsuit challenging a new Florida law that restricts doctors from asking patients about guns in their homes. In the lawsuit, nicknamed "Docs v. Glocks," the physicians' groups argued that the law restricted their free-speech rights, and on September 14, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke granted their motion to block the law.
The Medical Legal Partnership in Boston honored Ropes & Gray in recognition of work at Dorchester House. In collaboration with Dorchester House, Ropes & Gray established a national model for promoting health through preventative legal services in community-based health and social services centers. Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR), which works to secure safety and freedom for asylum-seekers who have fled from persecution throughout the world, recognized a Ropes & Gray lawyer for her work for Iraqi asylum-seekers. The Lawyers' Committee, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan legal organization that provides pro bono legal representation to victims of discrimination based on race or national origin, honored Ropes & Gray for providing workshops and clinics for emerging businesses in an economically disadvantaged area of Massachusetts.
In 2010, 2011 and 2013, Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals, presented Ropes & Gray with the Safe Haven Award.
In 2014, Ropes & Gray, on behalf of two survivors of child sex trafficking, filed a lawsuit against Backpage.com in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The website is a major hub of advertisements for illegal commercial sex in the United States. Ropes & Gray described the plaintiffs as follows: "The first plaintiff, referred to in the court papers as Jane Doe No. 1, was a victim of sex trafficking in 2012 and 2013 when she was age 15 and 16. She was sold for sex more than 1,000 times over an 18-month period at locations in greater Boston and in Rhode Island. The second plaintiff, Jane Doe No. 2, was trafficked at age 15 in various locations in Massachusetts between 2010 and 2012."
Miscellaneous
In late 2010, the firm's Boston office moved to the top office floors of the Prudential Tower in the Back Bay neighborhood.
Notable current and former attorneys
- Eleanor D. Acheson (Associate 1974-1983, Partner, 1983-1993) - Vice president and general counsel of Amtrak. Former Assistant Attorney General of the United States.
- Mark Barnes (Partner) - Activist and academic, former Chief Research Compliance Officer, Harvard University.
- Yochai Benkler (Associate, 1994-1995) - Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School.
- Janis M. Berry (Partner, 1986-1997) - Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.
- Stephen L. Braga (former Partner) - Criminal defense attorney known for his successful pro bono representation of Martin Tankleff.
- Levin H. Campbell - Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
- Robert C. Clark (Associate, 1972-1974) - Former Dean of the Faculty of Law (1989-2003), and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor (2003-present), Harvard University.
- Archibald Cox (Associate, 1938-1945) - U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy; first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal.
- George S. Hawkins, General Manager of the DC Water and Sewer Authority.
- Olin M. Jeffords - (Associate, 1919-1921) - Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, father of Senator Jim Jeffords.
- Henry Cabot Lodge - (Associate, 1875-1880) - American statesman and 1st U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
- George H. Lyman (Associate) - chairman of the Massachusetts Republican state committee and collector of customs for the port of Boston.
- Roger A. Moore (Partner, 1967-1990) - Former Chairman of the Board, National Review; Chief Legal Advisor, presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater; general counsel of the Republican National Committee.
- Michael Moradzadeh (Associate) - CEO of Rimon Law P.C.
- Ruth O'Brien (Partner, retired 1996) - Second female partner; mother of Conan O'Brien.
- Diane Bemus Patrick (Partner) - Former First Lady of Massachusetts.
- John Palfrey (Associate, 2001-2002) - Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, vice dean for library and information resources, and a tenured professor at Harvard Law School.
- Elliot Richardson (Associate, 1949-1953, 1955-1957; Partner, 1961-1965) - Former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1970-1973); U.S. Secretary of Defense (1973); U.S. Attorney General (1973); United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1975-1976); and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1976-1977).
- John Richardson (1911-1970s) - Specialized in corporate and trustee work and was responsible for hiring young lawyers to join the firm. Was also a political supporter of Herbert Hoover and served as the Republican National Committeeman from Massachusetts from 1932 to 1936.
- Clayton Spencer (Partner, 1986-1989) - president of Bates College
- Christopher Taylor (Associate) Mayor of Ann Arbor since 2014.
- James Vorenberg (Associate, 1954 - 1960; Partner, 1960-1962) - Former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Harvard University (1981-1989).
- Jane Willis (Partner) - Part of the MIT Blackjack Team later fictionalized in Bringing Down the House.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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