Shearman & Sterling history

Gould had plenty of work for the new partnership, for in 1873 he faced 63 cases and a year later he had 97 cases pending.

At about the same time, in 1875 the trial of the prominent Reverend Henry Ward Beecher began, with Thomas Shearman, a member of his church, as his defense attorney.

After the turn of the century, Shearman & Sterling gained as a major client the Consolidated Gas Company that had been formed in 1884 when six firms serving Manhattan had merged.

In 1918 the law firm had just two partners, plus 11 associates and 18 clerks.

1919: Firm merges with Cary & Carroll, a major expansion that adds ten new partners.

Thus in 1956 the law firm helped in the 'largest equity offering to date--involving more than 700 underwriters--and the last of the great private industrial family enterprises' became a public corporation, according to Enterprise.

The firm's first international office was established in Paris in 1963.

Shearman & Sterling in 1967 made banking history when it helped its long-term client National City Bank of New York create the nation's first one-bank holding company, later called Citicorp, that was able to offer a variety of new financial products and services.

1972: London office is started.

Finally, the law firm represented his daughter Christina in estate negotiations with his widow after he died in 1975.

During the Carter presidency, Muslim fundamentalists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini took over the nation of Iran, and then Iranians captured 52 American hostages in 1979.

1985: Los Angeles office opens.

In 1992 the newly formed Republic of Kazakhstan hired Sherman & Sterling to help create a national oil company, develop its major oil and gas reserves, resolve border disputes, and write legislation involving foreign investment and other matters.

The firm's lawyers assisted Daimler in its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993, the first such listing by a German company, prompting other major companies to follow suit.

1995: The Singapore office is established.

The law firm in 1997 also represented Robertson Stephens and Alex, Brown when the two securities firms were acquired by BankAmerica and Bankers Trust, respectively.

The firm's exhibit and publications 'illustrate an important, if seldom-acknowledged, relationship between business and the law,' said senior partner Stephen Volk in the April 22, 1999 New York Law Journal.

In 2004, the firm launched an office in São Paulo, Brazil and has since represented Brazilian companies in a number of important transactions.