Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm.[2] It is a white-shoe firm[3] and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers.[4][5]

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
No. of offices15
No. of attorneys1000+[1]
Major practice areasGeneral corporate practice, litigation, regulatory
Date founded1946 (Arnold & Fortas)
1917 (Kaye Scholer)
Company typeLimited liability partnership
Websitearnoldporter.com

History

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The original firm was founded as Arnold & Fortas in 1946 by New Deal veterans Thurman Arnold, a former Yale Law School professor and U.S. Court of Appeals judge on the D.C. Circuit, and Abe Fortas, another former Yale Law School professor who later became a Supreme Court Justice.[6] In 1947, Paul A. Porter, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, joined the firm and it was renamed as Arnold, Fortas & Porter. In 1965, Abe Fortas' name was dropped from the firm's moniker after his ascension to the Supreme Court.

In November 2016, Arnold & Porter announced that it would be merging with New York-based firm Kaye Scholer (founded in 1917) to form Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, with approximately 1,000 attorneys across ten domestic and four international offices. The merger took effect on January 1, 2017.[7]

In February 2018, The National Law Journal reported that the newly combined "firm has quietly reversed its post-merger branding efforts" and "scrubbed nearly all mention of 'Kaye Scholer' from its public image, changing its brand name, email addresses and web domain", while retaining the legal entity name in full.[8] In September 2020, Arnold & Porter announced that it will shut down its Frankfurt office by the end of March 2021.[9]

In 2022, Arnold & Porter was a founding member of the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of United States law firms offering free legal services to people seeking and providing abortions in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade.[10]

Pro bono work

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In 2020, Arnold & Porter attorneys helped secure a $14 million judgment for 12 Black Lives Matter protesters who were victims of police brutality in Colorado.[11] The matter took 18 months to settle and required 14,000-plus lawyer hours.[12]

Attorneys with the firm assisted the family of Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper in obtaining the first posthumous presidential pardon in U.S. history, and represented Ukrainian mail order bride Nataliya Fox against international marriage broker Encounters International in a landmark case that helped to establish the rights of such women.[13]

The firm is co-counsel with the DC Prisoners' Project of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, which represents prisoners at ADX Florence who allege deficiencies in psychiatric evaluation and care in Cunningham v. Federal Bureau of Prisons.[14]

Offices

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Thurman Arnold Building is the former location of Arnold & Porter's offices in Washington, D.C. The firm relocated to 601 Mass. Ave NW in 2015.

Notable people

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Abe Fortas
 
Merrick Garland

References

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  1. ^ "Arnold & Porter - the Inside View".
  2. ^ Arnold & Porter website
  3. ^ Hsu, Spencer (April 1, 2021). "Honduras hired elite D.C. law firm in failed lobbying effort to derail 'state-sponsored drug trafficking probe' of president's brother". Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  4. ^ "Arnold & Porter | Law.com".
  5. ^ "Arnold & Porter | Company Profile".
  6. ^ Chambers Student Guide 2011, Chambers and Partners.
  7. ^ "Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer Announce Combination | News | Arnold & Porter". Arnold & Porter. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  8. ^ "Arnold & Porter Scrubs Kaye Scholer From Masthead, Website", by Ryan Lovelace, The National Law Journal, Law.com, February 02, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  9. ^ [1] "Aus in Deutschland - Arnold & Porter schließt Frankfurter Buero"
  10. ^ Lancaster, Alaina (June 1, 2022). "20 Law Firms Offer Pro Bono Legal Services to Defend Abortion Rights". Law.com. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  11. ^ Kasakove, Sophie (March 26, 2022). "Colorado Jury Awards $14 Million to Demonstrators Injured in George Floyd Protests". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  12. ^ "Lawyers use pro bono hours to step up fight for racial justice". Financial Times. December 6, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  13. ^ "Mail-Order Misery: Imported Brides - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com". Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2006.
  14. ^ Mark Binelli (March 26, 2015). "Inside America's Toughest Federal Prison For years, conditions inside the United States' only federal supermax facility were largely a mystery. But a landmark lawsuit is finally revealing the harsh world within". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  15. ^ Olson, Elizabeth (November 10, 2016). "Law Firm Arnold & Porter to Merge With Rival Kaye Scholer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  16. ^ Dayen, David (May 17, 2018). "An Equifax and Facebook Lawyer Will Now Run the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection". The Intercept. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  17. ^ Munson, Emilie (May 28, 2021). "Former Sen. Chris Dodd will work for Biden, but not as ambassador". Connecticut Post. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  18. ^ "Lightning Strikes Twice at Arnold & Porter with Merrick Garland Nomination". National Law Journal. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
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