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| Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
|---|---|
| No. of offices | 19 worldwide[1] |
| No. of attorneys | 1,000+[2] |
| No. of employees | 1,800+ |
| Major practice areas | General practice |
| Key people | Abid Qureshi & Daniel Walsh[2] (Co-Chairs) |
| Revenue | $1.22 billion (2021)[3] |
| Profit per equity partner | $3.093 million (2021)[4] |
| Date founded | 1945 |
| Founder | Robert Strauss and Richard Gump |
| Company type | Limited liability partnership |
| Website | www |
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (known asAkin Gump orAkin) is an Americanmultinationallaw firm headquartered inWashington, D.C. It is the second-largest lobbying firm in theUnited States by revenue.[5]
The firm was founded inDallas,Texas, in 1945 byRobert Strauss and Richard Gump. It maintains a large presence in Texas with five offices in the state.[6]
In early September 1950, Strauss and Gump addedIrving Goldberg and William P. Fonville to the firm, which was then renamed Goldberg, Fonville, Gump & Strauss.[7]
In 1963, Jack Hauer left a competitor to join the firm, which became known as Goldberg, Fonville, Gump, Strauss & Hauer.[7]
Goldberg left the firm in 1966 to accept a federal judgeship on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was replaced by Henry Akin. Fonville's departure—and the ascent to named partner status of Alan Feld, who had joined the firm in 1960—gave the firm the name it currently bears.[7]
In 2012, the firm's partnership elected Kim Koopersmith to serve as its chairperson, joining the few women up to that time to head anAm Law 50 law firm.[8] She succeeded R. Bruce McLean, who had helmed the firm for 20 years and is the first woman to chair the firm.[9]
In 2013, Akin adopted a "single tier" partnership structure, in which all partners have equity, abandoning the more popular "two tier" structure in which many partners have no equity interest.[10]
In 2017, Akin hired its first chief diversity and inclusion officer, Michele Meyer-Shipp, who joined the firm fromPrudential Financial. She was succeeded by Nimesh Patel, who joined the firm in February 2019.[11]
According toOpenSecrets, Akin was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats.[12] By comparison, during that same periodKirkland & Ellis donated $2.49 million, 59% to Republicans,[12] while oil conglomerateExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans.[13] Since 1990, Akin has contributed $19.84 million to federal candidates, and since 2003 has spent $8 million on lobbying.[14]
The firm's clients includes the governments of Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the Maldives, and Nicaragua.[15][16]
The firm has offices inDallas,Washington, D.C.,San Antonio,Houston,Irvine,Fort Worth,New York,Moscow,Philadelphia,London,Los Angeles,San Francisco,Beijing,Hong Kong,Singapore,Abu Dhabi,Dubai,Frankfurt,Geneva andHartford.[17] In December 2023, Akin announced the decision to begin winding down operations in Beijing in 2024.[18]
In November 2023, amid a wave ofantisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter said "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."[19]
Paul Manafort, a central figure in the2017 Special Counsel investigation, was being represented by Melissa Laurenza, a partner of the firm.[20] Melissa Laurenza's role in the Russian investigation centers from her representation of Manafort. TheUnited States Office of Special Counsel compelled Melissa Laurenza to testify in the case. In October 2017, "New York University law professorStephen Gillers said the judge was persuaded that there was significant evidence Manafort and Gates had duped their lawyer into sending inaccurate letters to Justice about their lobbying efforts and about what emails might exist about the work."
In 2019, lawyers from the firm represented Catherine Croft, aU.S. State Department specialist onUkraine[21] in her testimony before theSelect Committee on Intelligence in theU.S. House of Representatives.
In 2020, for the sixth time in seven years,[22] the firm was named to the A-List byThe American Lawyer in its annual ranking of the country's 20 leading law firms.[23] In 2017, the firm marked its 15th appearance onCorporate Board Member's list of the nation's top 20 corporate law firms.[24] In 2019, for the 11th year out of the last 12, Akin was named toThe National Law Journal's "Appellate Hot List"[25] of firms that "[won] big in federal and state appeals courts across the country."
Yale Law Women, the largest student organization atYale Law School, named Akin to its 2019 list of Top 10 Firms for Family Friendliness[26] and, in 2020, as one of only three law firms to its list of Top Firms for Working Mothers and Family Planning.[27] In October 2017, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association presented Akin with the Thomas L. Sager Award in recognition of the firm's "sustained commitment to improving the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys". (The firm won the award four times previously.)[28] In 2019, for the 12th year in a row, Akin received a perfect score on theHuman Rights Campaign'sCorporate Equality Index, which rates employers on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.[29]
Chambers & Partners ranks the firm as top tier in 11 areas of practice around the globe including in bankruptcy/restructuring/insolvency, capital markets: debt, government relations, healthcare and Native American law.[2]
Among those reaping windfalls are large international law firms like the Washington-based Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which represents the governments of Japan, the Maldives, Nicaragua and South Korea, among others.
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