 | |
| Headquarters | 50 South Sixth Minneapolis, MN |
|---|---|
| No. of offices | 22 |
| No. of attorneys | 580 |
| Major practice areas | General Practice |
| Revenue |  $467.4 millionUSD (2023) |
| Date founded | 1912 |
| Founder | William Lancaster, David Simpson |
| Company type | Limited liability partnership |
| Website | dorsey.com |
Dorsey & Whitney LLP (known asDorsey) is alaw firm based in the United States with approximately 580 attorneys, located between 22 offices in the United States, Canada,Europe, andAsia as of 2025. The firm's headquarters is inMinneapolis, Minnesota, where it was founded.[citation needed] As of 2025, Dorsey is led by managing partner Peter Nelson.[1] The firm's lawyers have included several prominent public figures, including formerU.S. Vice PresidentWalter Mondale.[2]
Dorsey was founded in 1912 by William Lancaster, a director of First National Bank of Minneapolis (now part ofU.S. Bank), andDavid F. Simpson, a justice of theMinnesota Supreme Court.[2] The following year, they hired James Dorsey as their first associate. Dorsey left the firm in the 1920s to become an investment banker, but returned to the firm a few years after the1929 stock market crash. Dorsey led the firm until his death in 1959. The name of the firm continued to change for most of its history, until it was shortened into its current, permanent name in 1981.
The firm has also endowed theDorsey and Whitney Professor of Law at theUniversity of Minnesota Law School.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney prepared thehabeas corpus petition for the sixBahraini citizens held inextrajudicial detention in the United StatesGuantanamo Bay detention camps, inCuba.[6]Juma al Dossari, one of Colangelo-Bryan's clients, made a suicide attempt during Colangelo-Bryan's visit.[7][8][9][10]
Charles "Cully" Stimson, thenDeputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, stirred controversy when he went on record criticizing the patriotism of law firms that allowed employees to assist Guantanamo captives:"corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists."[11]Stimson's views were widely criticized. The Pentagon disavowed them and he resigned shortly thereafter.
In 2008, police uncovered aninsider trading conspiracy involving Dorsey & Whitney partner Gil Cornblum, who there and earlier in his career atSullivan & Cromwell in New York discovered inside information and, with his co-conspirator, Stanko "Stan" Grmovsek– a former lawyer and Cornblum's law school classmate –was found to have gained over $10 million in illegal profits over a 14-year span.[12] Cornblum committed suicide by jumping from a bridge as he was under investigation and shortly before he was to be arrested but before criminal charges were laid against him, one day before his alleged co-conspirator pled guilty.[13][14]
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