Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2014, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis.

History

Bingham, Dana & Gould was founded in Boston in 1891. From 1997, the company experienced sharp growth in the number of attorneys, offices, and revenues by absorbing other law firms. In 1997, Bingham Dana acquired the 30-lawyer Japanese practice group of Marks & Murase, giving the firm offices in New York and Los Angeles and a strong base of Japanese institutional clients. The next outpost was established in Hartford through a merger with 55-lawyer Hebb & Gitlin, a firm that concentrated on international

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

work. In 2001, Bingham Dana bulked up in New York City through a merger with Richards & O'Neill, a boutique law firm of 55 attorneys known for its

litigation - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

and corporate groups. The next year, in 2002, Bingham Dana merged with San Francisco-based law firm

McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2014, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Phi ...

to form 800-lawyer Bingham McCutchen. McCutchen Doyle brought five offices and a litigation and intellectual property focus. In 2003, the firm expanded in Southern California by merging with corporate boutique Riordan & McKinzie. 2006 saw a merger between Bingham McCutchen and

Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman LLP was a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, itself a product of the merger between D.C. law firm Swidler & Berlin and New York City's Shereff, Friedman, Hoffman & Goodman LLP in 1998. The firm merged with Bingham McCu ...

, a Washington, D.C.-based firm which brought greater capabilities in the nation's capital as well as a regulatory group. Bingham also launched in Hong Kong that same year. In 2007, the firm acquired Los Angeles litigation shop Alschuler Grossman. In July 2009, Bingham McCutchen acquired

McKee Nelson McKee is a surname of Scottish or Irish origin. The surname is derived from the Gaelic ''Mac Aodha'' ("son of ''Aodh''") a patronymic form of an old Gaelic personal name which means "fire". Similar surnames which also are derived from the same ...

, a midsize law firm specializing in tax law and

structured finance Structured finance is a sector of finance - specifically financial law - that manages leverage and risk. Strategies may involve legal and corporate restructuring, off balance sheet accounting, or the use of financial instruments. Securitization ...

. A team of Bingham attorneys and staff, led by

Susan Baker Manning Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

and

Sabin Willett Peter Sabin Willett, known as Sabin Willett, (born March 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and novelist, a partner with the Philadelphia-based law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, formerly a partner at Bingham McCutchen. He lives near Boston, Massachuse ...

, represented pro bono a dozen Uighur men held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

in the United States

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

s, in Cuba. Bingham litigated a number of habeas corpus cases on behalf of the Uighur clients, as well as cases under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 that brought to light evidentiary and procedural flaws in the 2004-05 Combatant Status Review Tribunals that were used to justify the Uighurs' ongoing imprisonment. All Bingham clients were subsequently released. The Tokyo office of Bingham McCutchen became one of the largest law firms in Japan by its 2007 merger with a domestic law firm headed by Hideyuki Sakai, an insolvency specialist. Unlike most foreign firms in Japan which have minimal domestic practices, Bingham's Tokyo office was predominantly staffed by Japanese attorneys and handled domestic matters such as the restructuring of

Olympus Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optics and reprography products. Olympus was established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers. Olympus holds roughly a 70-percent share of the global endoscope market, estimated ...

, though it hired a number of foreign attorneys since 2012 in an attempt to strengthen its outbound and cross-border practice and to expand in other legal fields such as intellectual property and investment funds. Despite a deep recession which hurt law firms nationwide, the Boston Globe reported that Bingham performed very well financially. In 2009, Bingham's gross revenues increased 12% and profits per partner increased 2%. Chairman Jay Zimmerman was quoted as saying "We’ve had our best year ever." However, despite an increase in revenues, Bingham froze salaries, and in March 2009 laid off 16 attorneys and 29 support staff.

Collapse

Bingham experienced internal tensions following the 2002 McCutchen merger, and again following the 2009 McKee merger. Both transactions were viewed as "mergers of equals" among some insiders, and as unequal acquisitions among others. The McKee transaction involved large compensation guarantees to several key McKee partners which were not immediately disclosed to other Bingham partners. The legacy McKee partners continued to earn relatively high compensation following the acquisition due to the fact that they charged higher hourly rates than the legacy Bingham partners; the legacy Bingham partners nonetheless demanded salary matching, which strained the profits of the firm. Bingham experienced a massive downsizing from 2012 to 2014, during which time it cut 225 lawyers and saw more than 50 partners leave the firm. Two major cases—the '' Deepwater Horizon'' litigation and an IP dispute involving

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

—ended abruptly, reducing the firm's revenue. Bingham attempted to cut costs by moving back office functions to a new center in Kentucky, but the initial cost of the move (about $100,000 per equity partner) hurt the firm's 2014 financial results even further. After Bingham's collapse, it was revealed that

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company. MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, Disability insurance, disability income insu ...

stopped working with Bingham due to the low level of racial diversity among its partners in its Boston and Hartford offices. In November 2014, 227 of around 300 partners and a similar number of associates joined the Philadelphia-based firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Morgan Lewis paid off Bingham's debt as part of the deal, and shut down Bingham's Kentucky operations center, relocating some employees to Philadelphia. Bingham's London and Frankfurt offices joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. 50 of Bingham's 60 lawyers in Tokyo moved to the Japanese law firm of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, with the remainder joining Morgan Lewis.

Offices

As of 2014, Bingham McCutchen had offices in Beijing, Boston, Hartford, Hong Kong, Lexington, London, Los Angeles,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, San Francisco, Santa Monica, California, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. It also offered consulting services through subsidiaries Bingham Consulting and Bingham Strategic Advisors.

Notable people

* Denise Jefferson Casper (judge, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts) *

Christopher Cox Charles Christopher Cox (born October 16, 1952) is an American attorney and politician who served as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a 17-year Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, and member of t ...

(former Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and former

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

) *

Barry Goode Barry P. Goode (born April 11, 1948) is a judge in Contra Costa County, California, and a former federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Early life and education A New York native, Goode earned a bachelor's d ...

(retired from the firm in 2001 to join state government, and now is a Contra Costa County judge) *

Thurgood Marshall, Jr. Thurgood Marshall Jr. (born August 12, 1956) is an American lawyer and son of the late Supreme Court of the United States Justice Thurgood Marshall. Marshall worked in the Bill Clinton White House and is a retired international law firm partner. ...

(former

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

White House Cabinet Secretary) * Steve Merrill (former Governor of New Hampshire) * Richard Riordan (former

Mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of the City of Los Angeles is the official head and chief executive officer of Los Angeles. The officeholder is elected for a four-year term and is term limit, limited to serving no more than two terms. (Under the Constitution of Califo ...

) * Josiah Spaulding *

* Pete Wilson (former

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

and former

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

)

References

External links

Bingham.com Official Website

Bingham McCutchen National Law Review Profile

Bingham McCutchen
{{Defunct law firms of the United States Law firms established in 1891 Defunct law firms of the United States 1891 establishments in Massachusetts Law firms disestablished in 2014 2014 disestablishments in Massachusetts