Davis Polk & Wardwell history

1867: The Federal Bankruptcy Act of 1867, the first such law to cover corporations as well as individuals, leads to an explosion of bankruptcies and a tremendous workload for the Bangs firm.

1870: Concerned about legal and judicial ethics amid the Tweed scandals, Bangs and 200 of the city's other leading lawyers form the first significant association of professional lawyers, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

John W. Davis, the law firm's most prominent attorney for several decades, was born in 1873 in West Virginia.

Francis L. Stetson graduated from Columbia, fought against the corruption of New York City's Democratic Party Boss Tweed, and then served New York City as its assistant corporation counsel before he joined Bangs as a partner in 1880.

1885: Upon Bangs's death, Stetson becomes the firm's head, a role he will hold for 35 years.

1892: On behalf of J.P. Morgan, the firm performs legal work on the organization of General Electric.

1895: Stetson works with J.P. Morgan, August Belmont, Robert Bacon and President Cleveland to halt a run on gold and stem a national financial crisis by arranging a private sale of gold to the United States Treasury Department.

The younger generation created the first 'true partnership,' according to Harbaugh, under such leaders as Allen Wardwell, who had joined the firm as a clerk after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1898.

In addition, Stetson after 1900 reorganized the United States Rubber Company and helped establish the International Harvester Company.

1901: The firm does the legal work for the merger of 15 separate steel companies to create United States Steel, which was then the largest company in history with a capitalized value of $1.4 billion – an astonishing 7% of the country's gross domestic product.

1905: Amid rapid expansion of the Bell telephone system, the firm does legal work for J.P. Morgan & Co. in its role as primary agent on a then-record $150 million bond issue for American Telephone & Telegraph Company.

1909: Wardwell becomes a partner of the firm.

1911: Future partner John W. Davis is elected to the United States House of Representatives, the beginning of a distinguished career in government that will include service as United States Solicitor General.

Starting in 1913, Davis made oral arguments before the nation's highest tribunal in 140 cases, the most of any 20th-century lawyer.

1915: Future partner Frank L. Polk becomes counselor of the Department of State, where he will later become Under Secretary of State.

The time was ripe for a major change, which happened in 1919, after Stetson had become senile and Jennings and Russell partially retired.

Acting as the de facto head of the law firm, Wardwell recruited two key men in 1920.

1921: John W. Davis becomes head of firm renamed Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed.

1923: In the wake of the disastrous Tokyo earthquake of 1923, the firm advises J.P. Morgan & Co. on Japanese financings.

1925: The firm becomes Davis Polk Wardwell Gardiner & Reed, with existing partners George H. Gardiner and Lansing P. Reed also added as name partners.

1927: The firm helps to create the American depositary receipt, one of the earliest important cross-border financial products.

According to the 1932 Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, the partnership at 15 Broad Street in New York City had 17 partners and one 'of counsel' member.

1934: S. Hazard Gillespie, who will later become a partner and senior litigator at the firm, works as one of the first summer associates.

Tompkins, 304 United States 64 (1938), in which Justice Louis Brandeis introduced the Erie doctrine.

With 20 partners in 1939, Davis Polk Wardwell Gardiner & Reed for years had represented J.P. Morgan & Company and the Guaranty Trust Company.

1942: Several years after the deaths of Gardiner and Reed, the firm becomes Davis Polk Wardwell Sunderland & Kiendl, adding Edwin S. S. Sunderland and Theodore Kiendl as name partners.

1944: Kiendl successfully represents Erie Railroad in the well-publicized Supreme Court case Erie v.

During the Korean War, President Harry Truman in April 1952 announced that he had seized control of the nation's steel industry to prevent a threatened work slowdown or complete shutdown because of an industry-union dispute.

1953: Partner Ralph M. Carson serves as lead defense counsel in the massive six-year government antitrust case against 17 investment houses, United States v.

In 1954 the law firm included 26 members or partners, according to the Martindale-Hubbell Directory.

1958: Davis Polk advises on the first public offering by Boeing Airplane Company, which finances the construction of the first passenger jet, the 707.

1960: The firm successfully represents R.J. Reynolds in one of the first products liability cases against a tobacco company, Lartigue v.

1962: The Paris office is started.

1963: A change in United States tax law leads to the creation of the Eurodollar market, and the new Paris office advises the underwriters of one of the first Eurodollar financings, for Japanese company Takeda Chemical Industries.

By 1964 the law firm of 37 partners had added a Paris office and moved to its new headquarters at One Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York City.

The firm voted in 1967 to take its current name from three of the firm's most influential partners from the early-to-mid 20th century: John W. Davis, Frank Polk, and Allen Wardwell.

1972: The firm opens its second overseas office, in London.

1973: Firm opens its London office.

The firm, renamed Davis Polk & Wardwell, had overseas branches in both Paris and London in 1974 and included 43 partners and nine 'of counsel' lawyers.

1976: Partner Robert F. Fiske Jr. is appointed United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

Part of the change came from a 1977 United States Supreme Court ruling that said restrictions on professional advertising violated the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.

1980: The firm opens an office in Washington DC.

In 1981, the firm played an important role in negotiating the financial aspects of the resolution of the Iranian hostage crisis.

1983: Davis Polk successfully defends Babcock & Wilcox, a designer and manufacturer of nuclear reactors, in a $4 billion suit brought by General Public Utilities as a result of the Three-Mile Island accident.

1986: Retired partner Lawrence Walsh is appointed special prosecutor in the Iran-contra investigation.

1987: Firm opens its new Tokyo office.

1991: The Frankfurt office is opened.

1992: After more than 140 years in Manhattan's Financial District, Davis Polk moves its office uptown to 450 Lexington, near Grand Central Terminal.

1993: The Hong Kong office is established.

In 1994 he earned about $1 million at the law firm.

Then in late 1995 Goldstone accepted an offer to become the CEO of RJR Nabisco Holdings Inc.

Davis Polk ranked number eight based on its 1997 gross revenue, but it did not rank in the top 50 based on the number of lawyers.

In 1998, the firm advised Exxon on its $81 billion merger with Mobil, the largest merger in history at the time.

For example, in 1999 Davis Polk & Wardwell, along with two other New York firms, Shearman & Sterling and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, started branch offices in Silicon Valley.

In 2000, the firm advised its long-term client, J.P. Morgan & Co., on its merger with Chase Manhattan Bank to form JPMorgan Chase.

2001: The firm advises Comcast on its acquisition of AT&T Broadband to create the nation's largest cable company.

2004: Davis Polk advises St Paul Companies on its $26 billion merger with Travelers to form one of the nation's largest commercial insurers.

2007: Davis Polk opens an office in Beijing, our third office in Asia.

2010: The firm serves as an essential resource for major financial institutions as the new Dodd-Frank Act and its many associated regulations bring sweeping changes to the financial services sector.

2011: The firm opens its first office in Latin America, in São Paulo, Brazil.

2012: Davis Polk launches its English law practice in London to complement our English law practices in Hong Kong and Brazil.