Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
Encyclopedia
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, which also goes by the shorter market name WilmerHale, is an American law firm with twelve offices across the USA, Europe and Asia. It was created in 2004 through the merger of the Boston-based firm Hale and Dorr and the Washington-based firm Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, and employs more than 1,100 attorneys worldwide. In 2011 The American Lawyer named WilmerHale to its "A-List" for the eighth year since the list’s inception in 2003.
and a pioneer in the American legal aid
movement, joined the firm in 1919 and served as managing partner for thirty years. Hale and Dorr gained national recognition in 1954 when partner Joseph Welch
, assisted by associate James St. Clair
and John Kimball, Jr., represented the U.S. Army on a pro bono
basis during the historic Army-McCarthy hearings
. In 1988, partner Paul Brountas chaired the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
, and in 1990, senior partner William Weld
was elected governor. The firm has had a long and mutually profitable relationship with nearby Harvard Law School
, alma mater of more than a fifth of WilmerHale's current lawyers, and home of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center. http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/lsc/
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering was founded in Washington in 1962 by former Cravath
attorneys Lloyd Cutler
and John Pickering
, along with a senior lawyer, Richard Wilmer. Cutler, who later served as White House Counsel
to Presidents Jimmy Carter
and Bill Clinton
, founded the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
in 1962, and served on its executive committee until 1987.
In the 1980s, Cutler led the founding of the Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project, to aid South African lawyers who fought to implement the rule of law during apartheid. From 1981 to 1993, partner C. Boyden Gray
left the firm to serve as White House Counsel to Vice President and President George H.W. Bush.
In 1988, the law firm established a subsidiary as a registered investment adviser. Initially known as Haldor Inventment Advisors, L.P., and then Hale Dorr Wealth Advisers. In 2008 Hale Dorr Wealth Advisors became Silver Bridge. In 2003, partner Jamie Gorelick
began serving as a member of the 9/11 Commission
. The two firms merged to form Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in 2004. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1082131900146
In 2010, the law firm relocated its administrative support base to a new campus in Dayton, Ohio
as it seeks to streamline internal business operations across its many offices.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002684.html The office will house close to 200 employees from existing WilmerHale offices and new employees from the Dayton area. Individuals in the Business Services Center include administrative support staff, bringing together services such as finance, human resources, information technology services, operations, document review and management, and practice management will provides improved efficiencies for administrative teams and the firm, and reduce significant operational expenses.http://www.wilmerhalecareers.com/locations/dayton/
, the firm ranks 14th among American law firms in terms of total revenue. http://wsj.com/public/resources/documents/legalweek1.pdf
Akamai Technologies,
Amdocs,
Analog Devices,
AT&T,
Avid,
Bayer,
Becton Dickinson,
Biogen Idec,
BJ’s Wholesale Club,
Boeing,
Bose,
Boston Scientific,
Broadcom,
Cephalon,
Citigroup,
Credit Suisse,
Chrysler LLC,
Danaher,
Deutsche Bank,
Deutsche Telekom,
Educational Testing Service,
EMC,
General Electric,
Goldman Sachs,
The Hartford Financial Group,
Honda,
HSBC Finance,
John Hancock,
JPMorgan Chase,
Kodak,
Lufthansa,
Millennium Pharmaceuticals,
Monsanto,
Morgan Stanley,
Novartis,
Oracle,
Panera Bread,
PerkinElmer,
Pfizer,
Philips,
Procter & Gamble,
Red Hat,
Sepracor,
Staples,
Statoil,
Sun Life Financial,
Thermo Fisher Scientific,
UBS,
Varian Semiconductor,
WebMD,
Wyeth, and
Yankee Candle.
in a suit by eight families from Woburn
, Massachusetts
who claimed that Beatrice, along with W.R. Grace, had polluted the town's water supply, resulting in an elevated number of leukemia cases and immune-system disorders. The case was memorialized in the controversial book A Civil Action
, by Jonathan Harr
, and in a movie of the same name starring Robert Duvall
as Facher and John Travolta
as plaintiffs' lawyer Jan Schlichtmann
. http://home.earthlink.net/~dkennedy56/woburn_harr.html Upon further discovery, the EPA took the case on and W.R. Grace was successfully indicted for making false statements. Both W. R. Grace and Beatrice foods paid a total $64.9M to clean up the contained sites in Woburn, MA.
and its CFO
, Andy Fastow, lawyers from Wilmer Cutler & Pickering represented a special investigative committee of Enron's board of directors in an internal investigation into those transactions. The resulting report, known as the "Powers
Report," laid out the facts that have been the predicate for much of the public discussion of Enron since that time. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/enron/1771735.html
Similarly, after WorldCom's announcement that it would have to restate financial statements, the firm represented a special investigative committee of WorldCom's board of directors in performing an internal investigation into the accounting irregularities. The investigation resulted in a widely-covered written report that detailed a variety of accounting issues as well as the role of management and the board of directors. http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2033041/worldcom-report-sullivan-masterminded-fraud
in high-profile Department of Justice
and SEC
proceedings, as well as multiple class actions based on his alleged participation in insider trading violations.
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering represented Swiss banks accused of profiting from the Holocaust in their settlement negotiations with plaintiffs. The firm also represented Siemens AG
, Krupp AG, and other German companies accused of exploiting forced laborers during the Nazi era. http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-bazyler-f04.htm
Since 2005, WilmerHale has represented Senator William Frist with regards to an SEC insider trading
investigation.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9558504/site/newsweek/
work. Not surprisingly, WilmerHale has ranked at or near the top of The American Lawyer
s pro bono ranking since the merger. In recent years, the firm has been involved in several high-profile cases. Among other things, it has:
”, a group of men who fell under suspicion of planning to attack the US embassy in Bosnia
and who are now held in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
. http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=13493
In 2006, attorney Melissa Hoffer
, then part of the team with WilmerHale, delivered a speech in Caen
, France, critical of U.S. detainee policy. Other WilmerHale lawyers participating in the case include Stephen Oleskeyhttp://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/17/1541233http://www.wilmerhale.com/about/news/newsDetail.aspx?news=69, Rob Kirschhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/rob_kirsch/http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/us_psychologists_doctors_medics_and_torture.htm, Mark C. Fleminghttp://www.wilmerhale.com/mark_fleming/, Lynne Campbell Soutterhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/lynne_soutter/, Jeffrey Gleasonhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/jeffrey_gleason/ Lauren Brunswickhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/lauren_brunswick/ and Adam Gershensonhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/adam_gershenson/.
In January 2007, Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, criticized WilmerHale and other major law firms for representing "the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001," and questioned whether such work was really being done pro bono
or might actually receive funding from shadowy sources. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/01/12/bush-lawyer-blasts-corporate-law-firms-for-representing-detainees/ In a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing Stimson, Harvard Law School professor (and former United States Solicitor General
under President Reagan) Charles Fried
wrote:
In December 2007, Seth Waxman
made the oral argument to the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush
which upheld habeas corpus rights for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
London (1972) Brussels
(1990) Berlin (1993) Beijing (2004) Oxford
(2007) Frankfurt
(2008)
Hale and Dorr
Wilmer Cutler & Pickering
WilmerHale
History
Hale and Dorr was founded in Boston in 1918 by Richard Hale, Dudley Huntington Dorr, Frank Grinnell, Roger Swaim and John Maguire. Reginald Heber Smith, author of the seminal work Justice and the PoorJustice and the Poor
Justice and the Poor was an article on law and ethics first published in 1919, promoting the concept of free legal assistance for the poor. It was written by Reginald Heber Smith....
and a pioneer in the American legal aid
Legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...
movement, joined the firm in 1919 and served as managing partner for thirty years. Hale and Dorr gained national recognition in 1954 when partner Joseph Welch
Joseph Welch
Joseph Nye Welch was the head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities, an investigation known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings.- Early life :Welch was born in Primghar, Iowa on...
, assisted by associate James St. Clair
James D. St. Clair
James D. St. Clair was an American lawyer, and practiced law for many years in Boston with the firm of Hale and Dorr.He first gained notice while assisting Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954...
and John Kimball, Jr., represented the U.S. Army on a pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
basis during the historic Army-McCarthy hearings
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy...
. In 1988, partner Paul Brountas chaired the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
, and in 1990, senior partner William Weld
William Weld
William Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
was elected governor. The firm has had a long and mutually profitable relationship with nearby Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, alma mater of more than a fifth of WilmerHale's current lawyers, and home of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center. http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/lsc/
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering was founded in Washington in 1962 by former Cravath
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is a prominent American law firm based in New York City, with an additional office in London. The second oldest firm in the country, Cravath was founded in 1819 and consistently ranks first among the world's most prestigious law firms according to a survey of partners,...
attorneys Lloyd Cutler
Lloyd Cutler
Lloyd Norton Cutler was an American attorney, who served as White House Counsel during the Democratic administrations of Presidents Carter and Clinton. He was also the trainer of the former Vice President of the European Parliament and current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, M.P...
and John Pickering
John H. Pickering
John H. Pickering was a founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, which became one of Washington D.C.'s most prominent law firms. He was best known for his role as an appellate lawyer in cases with national significance...
, along with a senior lawyer, Richard Wilmer. Cutler, who later served as White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
to Presidents Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, founded the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, often simply The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights or Lawyers' Committee, is a civil rights organization that was founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.-Origins: 1963-1973:...
in 1962, and served on its executive committee until 1987.
In the 1980s, Cutler led the founding of the Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project, to aid South African lawyers who fought to implement the rule of law during apartheid. From 1981 to 1993, partner C. Boyden Gray
C. Boyden Gray
Clayland Boyden Gray is a former American diplomat and public servant. He is a member of the board of directors at the Atlantic Council and at The European Institute....
left the firm to serve as White House Counsel to Vice President and President George H.W. Bush.
In 1988, the law firm established a subsidiary as a registered investment adviser. Initially known as Haldor Inventment Advisors, L.P., and then Hale Dorr Wealth Advisers. In 2008 Hale Dorr Wealth Advisors became Silver Bridge. In 2003, partner Jamie Gorelick
Jamie Gorelick
Jamie S. Gorelick is an American attorney, presently representing BP. She was Deputy Attorney General of the United States during the Clinton administration...
began serving as a member of the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
. The two firms merged to form Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in 2004. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1082131900146
In 2010, the law firm relocated its administrative support base to a new campus in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
as it seeks to streamline internal business operations across its many offices.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002684.html The office will house close to 200 employees from existing WilmerHale offices and new employees from the Dayton area. Individuals in the Business Services Center include administrative support staff, bringing together services such as finance, human resources, information technology services, operations, document review and management, and practice management will provides improved efficiencies for administrative teams and the firm, and reduce significant operational expenses.http://www.wilmerhalecareers.com/locations/dayton/
Reputation
For the sixth consecutive year WilmerHale has ranked in the top 20 in the popular Vault "prestige" ranking of the top hundred American law firms (including second in Boston and third in Washington, DC), and 5th on the American Lawyer "A-List" of the nation's twenty leading law firms based on revenue per lawyer, pro bono work, associate satisfaction, and diversity. http://www.wilmerhale.com/about/recognition/ According to the British magazine Legal WeekLegal week
Legal Week is a weekly British magazine for business lawyers, first published in 1999. It is owned by Incisive Media.- External links :*...
, the firm ranks 14th among American law firms in terms of total revenue. http://wsj.com/public/resources/documents/legalweek1.pdf
Clients
Among the companies that have recently been represented by WilmerHale attorneys include:Akamai Technologies,
Amdocs,
Analog Devices,
AT&T,
Avid,
Bayer,
Becton Dickinson,
Biogen Idec,
BJ’s Wholesale Club,
Boeing,
Bose,
Boston Scientific,
Broadcom,
Cephalon,
Citigroup,
Credit Suisse,
Chrysler LLC,
Danaher,
Deutsche Bank,
Deutsche Telekom,
Educational Testing Service,
EMC,
General Electric,
Goldman Sachs,
The Hartford Financial Group,
Honda,
HSBC Finance,
John Hancock,
JPMorgan Chase,
Kodak,
Lufthansa,
Millennium Pharmaceuticals,
Monsanto,
Morgan Stanley,
Novartis,
Oracle,
Panera Bread,
PerkinElmer,
Pfizer,
Philips,
Procter & Gamble,
Red Hat,
Sepracor,
Staples,
Statoil,
Sun Life Financial,
Thermo Fisher Scientific,
UBS,
Varian Semiconductor,
WebMD,
Wyeth, and
Yankee Candle.
A Civil Action
In the late 1980s, Hale and Dorr partner Jerome Facher successfully represented Beatrice FoodsBeatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company. In 1987, its smaller international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of its domestic brands and assets were acquired by Kohlberg,...
in a suit by eight families from Woburn
Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
who claimed that Beatrice, along with W.R. Grace, had polluted the town's water supply, resulting in an elevated number of leukemia cases and immune-system disorders. The case was memorialized in the controversial book A Civil Action
A Civil Action
A Civil Action is a 1998 American drama film starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr...
, by Jonathan Harr
Jonathan Harr
Jonathan Harr is an American writer, best known for A Civil Action.Harr was born in Beloit, Wisconsin. He lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has taught nonfiction writing at Smith College. He is a former staff writer at New England Monthly and has written for The New Yorker...
, and in a movie of the same name starring Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
as Facher and John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
as plaintiffs' lawyer Jan Schlichtmann
Jan Schlichtmann
Jan Richard Schlichtmann is an American attorney specializing in personal injury law and toxic torts. He was educated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, B.A., and Cornell University, J.D., and was admitted to the bar in 1977....
. http://home.earthlink.net/~dkennedy56/woburn_harr.html Upon further discovery, the EPA took the case on and W.R. Grace was successfully indicted for making false statements. Both W. R. Grace and Beatrice foods paid a total $64.9M to clean up the contained sites in Woburn, MA.
Enron and WorldCom reports
In the wake of news articles raising concerns about transactions between EnronEnron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
and its CFO
Chief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
, Andy Fastow, lawyers from Wilmer Cutler & Pickering represented a special investigative committee of Enron's board of directors in an internal investigation into those transactions. The resulting report, known as the "Powers
William C. Powers
William Charles Powers Jr. is the 28th president of The University of Texas at Austin, a position he has held since February 1, 2006....
Report," laid out the facts that have been the predicate for much of the public discussion of Enron since that time. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/enron/1771735.html
Similarly, after WorldCom's announcement that it would have to restate financial statements, the firm represented a special investigative committee of WorldCom's board of directors in performing an internal investigation into the accounting irregularities. The investigation resulted in a widely-covered written report that detailed a variety of accounting issues as well as the role of management and the board of directors. http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2033041/worldcom-report-sullivan-masterminded-fraud
Other notable and controversial clients
In 1986, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering represented corporate raider Ivan BoeskyIvan Boesky
Ivan Frederick Boesky is an American stock trader who is notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s.-Life and career:...
in high-profile Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and SEC
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a federal agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States...
proceedings, as well as multiple class actions based on his alleged participation in insider trading violations.
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering represented Swiss banks accused of profiting from the Holocaust in their settlement negotiations with plaintiffs. The firm also represented Siemens AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
, Krupp AG, and other German companies accused of exploiting forced laborers during the Nazi era. http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-bazyler-f04.htm
Since 2005, WilmerHale has represented Senator William Frist with regards to an SEC insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
investigation.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9558504/site/newsweek/
Pro bono
Both Hale and Dorr and Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering have a long history of involvement in pro bonoPro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
work. Not surprisingly, WilmerHale has ranked at or near the top of The American Lawyer
The American Lawyer
The American Lawyer is a monthly law magazine published by ALM. It was founded in 1979 by Steven Brill. Features include the annual AmLaw 100 Survey and AmLaw 200 Survey , "The View From the Top", their annual poll of law firm chairpersons, and their "Corporate Scorecard"...
s pro bono ranking since the merger. In recent years, the firm has been involved in several high-profile cases. Among other things, it has:
- Successfully contended that the Eighth AmendmentEighth Amendment to the United States ConstitutionThe Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
forbids the death penalty for persons under the age of eighteen in the United States Supreme Court case of Roper v. SimmonsRoper v. SimmonsRoper v. Simmons, was a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. The 5-4 decision overruled the Court's prior ruling upholding such sentences on offenders above or at the...
. This case was argued by former United States Solicitor GeneralUnited States Solicitor GeneralThe United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
Seth WaxmanSeth P. WaxmanSeth Paul Waxman was the 41st Solicitor General of the United States. He was nominated by President Clinton on September 19, 1997, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 1997...
.
- Represented Senators John McCainJohn McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and Russ FeingoldRuss FeingoldRussell Dana "Russ" Feingold is an American politician from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He served as a Democratic party member of the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2011. From 1983 to 1993, Feingold was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.He is a recipient of the John F...
and other sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform ActBipartisan Campaign Reform ActThe Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
(known popularly as "McCain-Feingold") in defending the Act's constitutionality. Again, Seth Waxman argued the case in front of the Supreme Court, which upheld all of the core provisions of the Act.
- Represented the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
for six years, after its affirmative actionAffirmative actionAffirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
policy was challenged as unconstitutional. The lawyers argued the cases in the Sixth CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Kentucky* Western District of Kentucky...
and in the Supreme Court, which held, in Grutter v. BollingerGrutter v. BollingerGrutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School...
, that universities have a compelling interest in achieving the educational benefits of a racially diverse student body.
Guantanamo controversy
A team of WilmerHale attorneys currently represents the “Algerian SixAlgerian Six
The Algerian Six are six Muslim men who had been imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since January 2002; five of them were ordered released after a long disputed habeas hearing before Judge Leon in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.; three...
”, a group of men who fell under suspicion of planning to attack the US embassy in Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and who are now held in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
. http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=13493
In 2006, attorney Melissa Hoffer
Melissa Hoffer
Melissa Hoffer is a lawyer specializing in environmental law.She is currently the New Hampshire Advocacy Center Director for the Conservation Law Foundation.Hoffer graduated from Northeastern University's School of Law in 1998....
, then part of the team with WilmerHale, delivered a speech in Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, France, critical of U.S. detainee policy. Other WilmerHale lawyers participating in the case include Stephen Oleskeyhttp://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/17/1541233http://www.wilmerhale.com/about/news/newsDetail.aspx?news=69, Rob Kirschhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/rob_kirsch/http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/us_psychologists_doctors_medics_and_torture.htm, Mark C. Fleminghttp://www.wilmerhale.com/mark_fleming/, Lynne Campbell Soutterhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/lynne_soutter/, Jeffrey Gleasonhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/jeffrey_gleason/ Lauren Brunswickhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/lauren_brunswick/ and Adam Gershensonhttp://www.wilmerhale.com/adam_gershenson/.
In January 2007, Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, criticized WilmerHale and other major law firms for representing "the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001," and questioned whether such work was really being done pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
or might actually receive funding from shadowy sources. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/01/12/bush-lawyer-blasts-corporate-law-firms-for-representing-detainees/ In a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing Stimson, Harvard Law School professor (and former United States Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
under President Reagan) Charles Fried
Charles Fried
Charles Fried is a prominent American jurist and lawyer. He served as United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989. He is currently a professor at Harvard Law School.-Early life and education:...
wrote:
In December 2007, Seth Waxman
Seth P. Waxman
Seth Paul Waxman was the 41st Solicitor General of the United States. He was nominated by President Clinton on September 19, 1997, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 1997...
made the oral argument to the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush
Boumediene v. Bush
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 , was a writ of habeas corpus submission made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba...
which upheld habeas corpus rights for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Offices
Boston, MA New York Los Angeles Palo Alto, CA Waltham, MA Washington, DCLondon (1972) Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
(1990) Berlin (1993) Beijing (2004) Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(2007) Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
(2008)
Attorneys and Lawyers
Notable attorneys and lawyers, past and present:Hale and Dorr
- Fred FisherFred Fisher (lawyer)Frederick George Fisher, Jr., was an American lawyer who first entered the public eye in connection with Senator Joseph McCarthy.-Biography:...
- Robert MuellerRobert MuellerRobert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
- Reginald Heber Smith
- James St. ClairJames D. St. ClairJames D. St. Clair was an American lawyer, and practiced law for many years in Boston with the firm of Hale and Dorr.He first gained notice while assisting Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954...
- Joseph WelchJoseph WelchJoseph Nye Welch was the head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities, an investigation known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings.- Early life :Welch was born in Primghar, Iowa on...
- William WeldWilliam WeldWilliam Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
Wilmer Cutler & Pickering
- John Bellinger IIIJohn B. Bellinger IIIJohn B. Bellinger, III was the Legal Adviser to the United States Secretary of State. He was sworn in on April 8, 2005. He was the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department of State, the Foreign Service, and the diplomatic and consular posts abroad...
- Manuel CohenManuel F. CohenManuel F. Cohen served as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission between 1964 and 1969 and also served as a member from 1961-1969.Born in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of Brooklyn College ....
- Lloyd CutlerLloyd CutlerLloyd Norton Cutler was an American attorney, who served as White House Counsel during the Democratic administrations of Presidents Carter and Clinton. He was also the trainer of the former Vice President of the European Parliament and current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, M.P...
- Stavros LambrinidisStavros LambrinidisStavros Lambrinidis is a former Vice President of the European Parliament and was between 17 June 2011 until 11 November 2011 the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece.-Yale University:...
- Paul A. EngelmayerPaul A. EngelmayerPaul Adam Engelmayer is a District Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The United States Senate confirmed him on July 26, 2011 in a 98–0 vote. He received his commission on July 27, 2011....
- Sally KatzenSally KatzenSally Katzen is an American lawyer, legal scholar, and government official. Katzen was a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the Executive Office of the President and government operations agencies, and held various positions in the Bill...
- John PickeringJohn H. PickeringJohn H. Pickering was a founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, which became one of Washington D.C.'s most prominent law firms. He was best known for his role as an appellate lawyer in cases with national significance...
- Barbara OlsonBarbara OlsonBarbara Olson was a lawyer and conservative American television commentator who worked for CNN, Fox News Channel, and several other outlets...
- James RobertsonJames Robertson (judge)James Robertson is a United States federal judge serving on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Robertson graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1959. He served in the United States...
WilmerHale
- Charlene BarshefskyCharlene BarshefskyCharlene Barshefsky served as United States Trade Representative, the country's top trade negotiator, from 1997 to 2001. Prior to that, she was the Deputy USTR from 1993 to 1997.- Life and career :...
- Paul Brountas
- Stephen Cutler
- Jerome Facher
- Jamie GorelickJamie GorelickJamie S. Gorelick is an American attorney, presently representing BP. She was Deputy Attorney General of the United States during the Clinton administration...
- C. Boyden GrayC. Boyden GrayClayland Boyden Gray is a former American diplomat and public servant. He is a member of the board of directors at the Atlantic Council and at The European Institute....
- Robert Kimmitt
- William F. LeeWilliam F. LeeWilliam F. Lee is a lawyer, presently co-managing partner of the international law firm of WilmerHale, which was formed from the merger of Wilmer Cutler and Hale and Dorr. He is the first Asian-American to lead a major American law firm....
- William McLucas
- Michelle Miller
- William J. Perlstein
- Seth P. WaxmanSeth P. WaxmanSeth Paul Waxman was the 41st Solicitor General of the United States. He was nominated by President Clinton on September 19, 1997, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 1997...
- Steve CharnovitzSteve CharnovitzSteve Charnovitz is a scholar of public international law, living in the United States. He teaches at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, and is best known for his writings on the linkages between trade and environment and trade and labor rights.-Background:Charnovitz is...
- David W. OgdenDavid W. OgdenDavid William Ogden , known professionally as David W. Ogden, is the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States...
- Gary BornGary BornGary B. Born is an international lawyer and academic. He is chair of the International Arbitration and International litigation practices at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and the author of a number of commentaries, casebooks and other works on international...
External links
- WilmerHale
- WilmerHale History
- "Wilmer Cutler Joins Forces With Hale and Dorr," from Law.com
- "Long, Long Law Firm Names Grow Short and Snappy," from The Boston GlobeThe Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
- "WilmerHale: A Merger's Tale," from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly