This article is about the American term. For the Australian term, seewhite-shoe brigade.
Term for prestigious professional firms
In the United States, "white-shoe firm" is a term used to describe prestigiousprofessional services firms that have been traditionally associated with the upper-class elite who graduated fromIvy League colleges. The term comes from white buckskinderby shoes (bucks), once the style among the men of the upper class. The term is most often used to describe leading old-lineWall Street law firms and financial institutions, as well as accounting firms that are over a century old, typically in New York City and Boston.[1]
Given the term's strong association with Ivy League elites, it has historically implied a cultural homogeneity associated withWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant men. However, the term is now used more as a matter of long-established, high-end firms, especially those working in complicated business matters.
FormerWall Street attorneyJohn Oller, author ofWhite Shoe, creditsPaul Drennan Cravath with creating the distinct model adopted by virtually all white-shoelaw firms, theCravath System, just after the turn of the 20th century, about 50 years before the phrasewhite-shoe firm came into use.[2]
The phrase derives from "white bucks", lacedsuede orbuckskin (orNubuck) derby shoes, usually with a red sole, long popular among the student body ofIvy League colleges.[1] A 1953Esquire article, describing social strata atYale University, explained that "White Shoe applies primarily to the socially ambitious and the socially smug types who affect a good deal of worldly sophistication, run, ride and drink in rather small cliques, and look in on the second halves of football games when the weather is good."[3] TheOxford English Dictionary cites the phrase "white-shoe college boys" in theJ.D. Salinger novelFranny and Zooey (1957) as the first use of the term:[4] "Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day."[5] It also appears in a 1958Fortune article by Spencer Klaw, which describes some firms as having "a predilection for young men who are listed in theSocial Register. These firms are called 'white-shoe outfits', a term derived from the buckskin shoes that used to be part of the accepted uniform at certain eastern prep schools and colleges."[6]
The American termwhite-shoe first originated inIvy League colleges, then reflecting a stereotype of East Coast old-line firms that were populated byWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). The term historically hadantisemitic connotations, as many of the New York firms known as white-shoe were considered inaccessible to Jewish lawyers until the 1960s.[4][7] The phrase has since lost some of this connotation, but is still defined byPrinceton University'sWordNet as "denoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative".[8] Most white-shoe firms also excluded Roman Catholics.[9][10][11][12] A 2010 column inThe Economist described the term as synonymous with "big, old, east-coast and fairly traditional."[13] In the 21st century, the term is sometimes used in a general sense to refer to firms that are perceived as prestigious or high-quality; it is also sometimes used in a derogatory manner to denote stodginess, elitism, or a lack of diversity.[4]
The only former Big Eight firm not merged into one of the Big Four isArthur Andersen, defunct since 2002, following felony conviction resulting from theEnron scandal.[15]
While the term "white-shoe" historically applied only to those law firms populated byWASPs, usage of the term has since been expanded to other top-rated prestigious firms. Many of these firms were founded as a direct result of the exclusionary tendencies of the original white-shoe firms, which provided limited opportunities for Jewish and Catholic lawyers, as well as other non-WASPs, and include:
Big Six: In 2012, three of these firms merged with overseas firms, and one other began operating in association with an overseas firm. As a consequence, it has proposed that the term is no longer applicable to the Australian legal profession, displaced by the concept of Global Elite law firms or International Business law firms.[68]
Magic Circle, firms with the largest revenues, the most international work and which generally outperform the rest of the London market on profitability.
Silver Circle, the next tier below the Magic Circle (there is no Golden Circle[70]) has firms smaller than those in the Magic Circle, though sometimes with similar level of profits per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer.[71][72][73]
