Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison History

The two remained lifelong friends - Frank went on to become a leading civic reformer and a founder of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association - but the two parted amicably in 1880, with Sam Weiss opening his own practice at 43 Wall Street.

He was born on February 7, 1894 in New York City, the second son and third child of Samuel and Carrie Stix Weiss.

In 1923, Samuel's son, Louis Weiss, started his own firm with John F. Wharton.

Louis Stix Weiss (1927-50), his friend Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, led a “radiant life” as a social reformer, educator and fighter for civil rights.

In 1940, he was named a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the first tax lawyer ever to occupy the position.

Another acquisition was Randolph Paul, a tax lawyer who left the United States Department of the Treasury in 1944 and, along with Garrison, added his name to the firm.

In 1946, Lloyd K. Garrison and Randolph Paul joined the firm, bringing the firm up to thirteen lawyers.

Also in 1949, Paul, Weiss became the first major Wall Street firm to move its headquarters to midtown Manhattan.

Beginning in the later 1950’s, Garrison led the charge to stop Con Edison from constructing a hydroelectric power generating station on the top of Storm King Mountain, a famous Hudson Valley landmark, obtaining an injunction that was a seminal moment in environmental law.

In 1957, there was only one woman associate in New York, and she was also the firm's only African American lawyer.

In 1966, Rifkind recruited Theodore Sorensen who became the firm's first international lawyer.

The star system antagonized many of the hard-working associates at Paul, Weiss, who comprised two-thirds of its 110 lawyers in 1970.

Most or all of that sum was covered by an insurance pool formed in 1971 by 21 New York law firms.

Upon his retirement from active practice in 1974, he became the non-executive chair of the firm, his impeccable manners, humble personal style, and incapacity to utter an unkind word, immeasurably contributing to the congeniality and friendship for which the firm’s partners were famous.

Beginning in 1983, more than 55 Paul, Weiss lawyers represented CenTrust at a cost of $12 million and, according to the government, became involved in the shady investments and financial dealings of the bank's chairman (who later went to prison) at the expense of depositors.

In 1986, his prolific writings were collected in a three-volume work One Man’s Word, later followed by At 90, On the ’90’s: The Journals of Simon H. Rifkind.

He later served as chief counsel in the Senate investigation of the Iran-Contra affair in 1987.

Paul, Weiss had 333 lawyers in 1988, of which 82 were partners.

1989: Arthur Liman, now the firm's leading partner, represents junk-bond king Michael Milken.

He drafted a constitution for Tajikistan in 1993 when the nation emerged from the former Soviet Union.

The firm did not have a black partner until 1994, when Jeh Johnson--a protegé of Liman and Abram--was promoted.

Simon Rifkind died of natural causes, age 94, in New York City on November 14, 1995.

Liman died of cancer at the age of 64 in 1997 but left behind such well-regarded protegees as Mark Belnick, Martin Flumenbaum, and Robert Schumer.

In 1999, it signed a ten-year lease renewal for 391,975 square feet of space at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, an office building between West 51st and 52nd streets in midtown Manhattan.

Another African American lawyer, Ted Wells, was named partner and co-chairman of the firm's 150-lawyer litigation department in 2000.

Paul, Weiss had about 500 lawyers in 2001.