SPECIAL July/August 2002 ISSUE Volume Five, Number 4 www.boardmember.com •THE TOP 21 FIRMS •LEADERS IN 50 METRO AREAS •SIX UP-AND-COMERS THE STAKES SOAR IN SHAREHOLDER LAWSUITS WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU VOTE FOR BANKRUPTCY PARLEZ-VOUS GLOBAL GOVERNANCE? SPRECHEN SIE LAWSUIT? PLUS: THE FEDS MOVE IN, TAKING NOTES CAN HURT YOU, AUDIT COMMITTEE UPDATE, AND OTHER HOT TOPICS
OUR second annual exclusive survey asked more than 24,000 board members to identify the law firms they most admire, nationally and in 50 metropolitan areas. Because of ties, the national top 20 has jumped to 21. The following pages contain profiles of all of these champion firms, along with a look at some of the lawyers who have contributed to their success. The report on which firms won most-admired status on a local basis begins on page 92. THE TOP 21 FIRMS LAST YEAR’S RANK 1. SKADDEN ARPS SLATE MEAGHER & FLOM, NEW YORK 1 2. CRAVATH SWAINE & MOORE, NEW YORK 2 3. SULLIVAN & CROMWELL, NEW YORK 3 4. WACHTELL LIPTON ROSEN & KATZ, NEW YORK 5 5. DAVIS POLK & WARDWELL, NEW YORK 6 6. JONES DAY REAVIS & POGUE, CLEVELAND 4 7. BAKER & M C KENZIE, CHICAGO 8 8. LATHAM & WATKINS, LOS ANGELES 9 9. KIRKLAND & ELLIS, CHICAGO 10 10. GIBSON DUNN & CRUTCHER, LOS ANGELES 7 11. WEIL GOTSHAL & MANGES, NEW YORK 17 12. AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD, DALLAS 20 13. SHEARMAN & STERLING, NEW YORK 11 14. O’MELVENY & MYERS, LOS ANGELES 13 15. WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI, PALO ALTO 12 16. PAUL WEISS RIFKIND WHARTON & GARRISON, NEW YORK 16 17. FULBRIGHT & JAWORSKI, HOUSTON — 18 (TIE). ARNOLD & PORTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. 18 SIDLEY AUSTIN BROWN & WOOD, CHICAGO 14 20 (TIE). FRIED FRANK HARRIS SHRIVER & JACOBSON, NEW YORK — SIMPSON THACHER & BARTLETT, NEW YORK 15 C O R P O R A T E B O A R D M E M B E R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 2
C O V E R S T O R Y T O P F I R M S TRANSATLANTIC MARATHONS GLOBETROTTER LIBBY KITSLAAR C O R P O R A T E B O A R D M E M B E R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 2
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue The story of how Jones Day partner Libby Kitslaar wound up spending 41 straight hours in a Frankfurt conference room is another in a long line of anecdotes that show why her firm ranks at or near the top in surveys on client service and global reach. Under intense deadline pressure, Kitslaar and her team were in Germany in November 2000 to iron out the details of client Abbott Laboratories’ $6.9 billion acquisition of the Knoll Pharmaceutical division of the German chemical company BASF. With the support of Jones Day’s international network, they got the work done in just over five weeks — and during Kitslaar’s final sleep-free, showerless two-day stretch, it can be safely assumed that the firm’s gung-ho culture sustained her at least as much as the lasagna and frankfurters she and her colleagues munched. “There comes a time when you just have to go into lockdown mode,” says Kitslaar, “and the lawyers we are fortunate to attract have a strong service mentality, work well as a team, and are willing to endure some personal pain in order to get these things done.” Playing through the pain, as any serious athlete will tell you, can become a habit. Last year, six months after wrapping the Abbott deal, Kitslaar began work on what the firm dubbed Project Sweep. She and her team represented S.C. Johnson Commercial Markets in its purchase of DiverseyLever, a British-Dutch institutional- cleaning business with 11,000 employees, 49 manufacturing sites, and operations in some 60 countries. Again, there was pressure to close the deal quickly. The work required several trips to England, but this time Kitslaar hosted the final push in her Chicago office. She and the other attorneys put in long hours and consumed countless cartons of takeout food — including Indian, which Kitslaar “found too fragrant for two nights in a row,” and fajitas, which the Brits didn’t like, she says, “because they didn’t know how to fold them.” The work won Jones Day’s in-house prize for deal of the year. This was no small award, considering that during 2000 and 2001, lawyers at Jones Day were involved in 723 mergers and acquisitions, more than any other firm. Jones Day played a role in transactions that created the largest independent oil-refining business in the U.S., extended eBay’s dominance of the online auction industry, and allowed Smucker’s to purchase Procter & Gamble’s Jif peanut butter and Crisco cooking oil businesses, which Fortune singled out as the “best corporate marriage of 2001.” With more than 1,600 attorneys spread over 26 offices in 12 countries, Jones Day ranks as the sixth-largest law firm in the world, according to AmLaw Global 50. But it has a down-home commitment to clients that is true to its 109-year-old Midwestern roots. The consulting firm BTI ranked Jones Day No. 1 in its latest survey of legal client service; The American Lawyer said it had the best litigation department of 2001, a reminder that Jones Day is as adept in front of the bench as it is in the boardroom. “We’re hired because we have those various strengths,” says Kitslaar. And, of course, because you will never catch them napping. MARK BATTRELL by James Burnett C O R P O R A T E B O A R D M E M B E R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 2
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