Sullivan & Cromwell History

Sullivan & Cromwell was founded in 1879 by Algernon Sydney Sullivan and William Nelson Cromwell.

After Sullivan died in 1887, Cromwell chose William J. Curtis as junior partner.

Cromwell increasingly absented himself from the firm's quarters, and Alfred Jaretzki became managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell about 1900.

The firm was involved in the creation of the United States Steel Corp. in 1901, for which Cromwell received $2 million worth of stock in return for $250,000 in cash.

Sullivan & Cromwell was one of the earliest United States firms to open overseas offices, beginning with Paris in 1911.

John Foster Dulles succeeded Victor as managing partner in 1926.

By 1928, offices also were open in Buenos Aires and Berlin.

When the firm moved to larger quarters at 48 Wall Street in 1929, there were 63 lawyers, of whom 14 were partners and 37 were associates.

Four women lawyers--the firm's first--were hired in 1930.

During the Great Depression and its aftermath, the firm litigated in the newly emerging fields of shareholder derivatives, antitrust actions, federal income tax law, and registration under the Securities Act of 1933.

However, later the firm backdated the announcement of the closing of their German offices by one year, to 1934.

In 1935, Allen Dulles, then a partner in the firm and later Director of Central Intelligence, visited Germany and returned somewhat disturbed by the direction of the regime.

Then he came to to create the Central Intelligence Group, CIG for short, and then the year after that, in 1947, they created the CIA.

He survived until 1948, after which Rockefeller Center pulled down his residence to erect a high-rise office building.

Dulles resigned as Sullivan & Cromwell's chairman in 1949 and was succeeded by Arthur H. Dean.

The firm's influence on foreign policy reached its zenith in 1953, when Dulles became secretary of state and his brother Allen (also a Sullivan & Cromwell partner) became director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sullivan & Cromwell performed the legal work for the Ford Motor Company's $643 million offering in 1956, the biggest ever to that date.

The following is the text of a speech/commentary delivered by Fidel Castro on Cuban radio and television, Saturday evening, November 23, 1963, one day after the assassination of President Kennedy.

A separate banking practice was established in 1968.

William Ward Foshay succeeded Dean as chairman in 1972.

John R. Stevenson, who like his predecessors had considerable diplomatic experience, became chairman and senior partner of Sullivan & Cromwell in 1979.

A mergers and acquisition group was formed in 1980.

In 1986 alone the unit was involved in more than $50 billion worth of acquisitions.

Bill Davis of the Christic Institute, 1990

In 1991 Sullivan & Cromwell played a part in nearly every major banking deal, including the merger of Manufacturers Hanover Corp. and Chemical Banking Corp. and the acquisition of C&S/Sovran Corp. by NCNB Corp. to form NationsBank Corp.

It was tied, in terms of gross revenue, for fifth position among United States law firms in 1996.

In mergers and acquisitions, Sullivan & Cromwell was ranked fourth among law firms in 1997, acting as legal adviser in $91.5 billion worth of announced deals through October.

The other divisions were litigation, tax, and estates and personal. (A fifth, practice development, had been added by 1998.) Securities work accounted for 25 percent of the firm's activity, mergers and acquisitions, 22 percent, and litigation, 21 percent.

Black Op Radio #5 April Oliver and CNN's Operation Tailwind Story The full audio is available as part of Black Op Radio's Season 1 / year 2000 - one of 26 interviews available via direct download for $10.

Antonio Veciana In 2014, the Assassination Archives and Research Center held a conference on the occassion of the 50th Anniversary of the release of the Warren Commission Report.