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| Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP |
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Overview:
While Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP has a distinguished history dating back to 1888, the firm has been recognized as part of the "new elite" among "the profession's top tier," according to a survey by The American Lawyer magazine ("The A-List", July 2010).
With offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, Jersey City, Paris and Tokyo, Hughes Hubbard offers expertise in a wide range of practice areas. Our team of experienced practitioners work in over 30 specialized practices, from mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, corporate reorganization, real estate and cross-border transactions to securities litigation, arbitration, product liability, antitrust, intellectual property, labor, employee benefits and tax, as well as niche practices such as art law and a credit card practice.
From our early roots in the courtroom, Hughes Hubbard has developed a litigation practice that is among the most lauded in the country. A Survey in the International Financial Law Review identified several of our partners as "stars" in the field of international litigation and noted that our "results have been excellent." Our arbitration practice was recognized that same year by International Commercial Litigation magazine both for its volume (first among U.S. law firms in number of cases handled) and scope (first among American firms in number of industries represented). The American Lawyer and Chambers Global have both cited the firm as being in the forefront of international arbitration work.
Our corporate practice is diverse and extensive. It handles everything from M&A, corporate governance, and joint ventures to capital markets, private equity, equipment finance and banking. Clients range from leading Fortune 500 corporations to privately held companies to venture capital firms and private equity funds. They operate in many industries, such as manufacturing, transportation, financial institutions, pharmaceuticals, high technology, media, publishing, telecommunications and more. The breadth of our expertise enables us to provide high-quality, high-value work and handle large projects affordably.
A distinguishing characteristic of Hughes Hubbard has long been its emphasis on providing superior, individualized client service. Every attorney in the firm understands that the practice of law requires extensive knowledge, outstanding skills and unwavering responsiveness. At a time when most Wall Street firms were focused only on securities work, our founder Charles Evans Hughes (the future Governor, Secretary of State and Chief Justice) decided at the turn of the century that the firm should meet all of its clients' legal needs. In particular, Hughes insisted that the firm's lawyers "stand up" for their clients in court. As a result, we not only built a prominent litigation practice; we built long-term, loyal relationships with many of our clients, some of them enduring for more than half a century.
Hughes Hubbard's goal has always been the same: To do everything it can in support of its clients. At the same time, the firm has steadfastly fulfilled its obligation to be a Good Citizen within the larger community in which its lawyers practice. The firm has outstanding diversity scores and consistently receives high marks for its pro bono activities. Hughes Hubbard truly is, as The American Lawyer observed, one of America's Top Law Firms. |
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History:
In 1884, Charles Evans Hughes entered the firm of Chamberlain, Carter & Hornblower upon graduation from Columbia Law School. Four years later, he was made a name partner and the firm's name was changed to Carter, Hughes & Cravath.
Increasingly, Hughes was known as a “lawyer’s lawyer.” Judges took special note of his work and sent him hotly-contested or highly-entangled cases. His independence and unquestioned integrity, in addition to his ability as a fact finder, singled him out, and he was chosen to direct successive investigations of the utility and insurance industries.
With successful investigations, particularly the Armstrong investigation of the insurance industry in 1905, Hughes gained a political reputation and was elected Governor of New York in 1906. After two terms as Governor, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Taft in 1910. He resigned from the Court in 1916 to run for President against Woodrow Wilson. After a narrow defeat for the Presidency, Hughes rejoined his old partners and, except for the period from 1921 to 1925, when he was Secretary of State under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, he remained a partner of the firm until his appointment as Chief Justice of the United States in 1930. Hughes’ son, Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., was also a partner in the firm but resigned in May 1929 to become Solicitor General of the United States. A year later he resigned from that position immediately upon his father’s confirmation as Chief Justice and rejoined the firm as a partner. Learned Hand, one of the great judges of the 20th century, is said to have once observed that the greatest lawyer he had ever known was Charles Evans Hughes, except that Hughes’ son was even greater. Allen Hubbard, a law school classmate of Hughes Jr., joined the firm in 1917 and apprenticed under Hughes Sr. He would lead the firm as Senior Partner three decades later. Francis Reed, who joined the Firm in 1928, was a renowned corporate lawyer who also took his early paces under Hughes Sr.. He served as Senior Partner from 1959-1974.
During the Great Depression, business failures and financial difficulties gave rise to major litigation. While most Wall Street firms suffered along with the economy, Hughes’ consistent emphasis on litigation paid off, and the firm grew.
In June of 1937, the firm suddenly dissolved and re-formed over a single evening. At the time, the media attributed the breakup to the desire of Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. to insulate his father, then Chief Justice, from a political attack directed at one of Hughes, Jr.’s partners by Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Treasury.
Hughes, Richards, Hubbard & Ewing opened its offices at One Wall Street on June 10, 1937, with eight partners and eight associates, all from the predecessor firm, and was to remain at the same address for more than 50 years. On the firm’s first day of business at its new address, Charles Hughes, Jr. received a call from the Chairman of the Aluminum Company of America, asking if Hughes, Jr. would defend that company in an antitrust suit brought by the United States. This was the celebrated Alcoa monopolization case, one of the most famous antitrust cases in American history. It began in 1937, before World War II, but ended after the war and totaled more than 40,000 pages of testimony. The U.S. Government appealed to the Supreme Court, but so many justices had to disqualify themselves that the Court lacked a quorum; for the only time in history, the Second Circuit, presided over by Learned Hand, sat by designation as the Supreme Court. |
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