Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is an American law firm created by the merger of Hunton & Williams LLP and Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP on April 2, 2018. The firm has offices in 20 cities, primarily in the United States.

History

Hunton & Williams (formerly Munford, Hunton, Williams & Anderson) was founded on November 1, 1901 in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, by

Henry W. Anderson Henry Watkins Anderson (December 20, 1870 – January 7, 1954) was an American attorney and leader of the Republican Party in Virginia. He commanded the American Red Cross Commission to Romania during World War I and was the Republican candid ...

Eppa Hunton Jr. Eppa Hunton III (April 14, 1855 – March 5, 1932), known as Eppa Hunton Jr., was an American attorney. The son of General Eppa Hunton, he experienced a turbulent childhood with the American Civil War and Reconstruction as its backdrop. After gr ...

, Beverley B. Munford, and

E. Randolph Williams Edmund Randolph Williams (May 1, 1871 – June 9, 1952) was an American lawyer from Richmond, Virginia. In 1896, he began practicing law with William Wirt Henry. Shortly after Henry's death, in 1901, he co-founded the law firm Munford, Hunton, ...

. It's focused on litigation, business, and finance law. The firm changed names many times over the years; its seventh name, in 1976, was Hunton & Williams; it became Hunton & Williams LLP in 2003. The firm's most notable member, a name partner from 1954 until 1972, was

Lewis F. Powell Jr. Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987. Born in Suffolk, Virginia, he graduat ...

, who focused on corporate law and representing clients such as the Tobacco Institute until he became a member of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in 1971. The firm's initial hire of a woman was Elizabeth Tompkins, the first woman graduate of the

University of Virginia Law School The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

, who worked as a summer clerk at Hunton & Williams in 1921 and 1922. In 1943, during the Second World War, two women lawyers were hired to work at Hunton & Williams: Sarah Geer Dale and Nan Ross McConnell. Dale's first case involved a labor-law issue for

Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

. She left the firm in 1945 to get married and retired from the practice of law. McConnell stayed on until 1948, when she married. Hunton & Williams was the first law firm in the United States to open an office solely for the practice of law

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

. The firm has a Centre for Information Policy Leadership, which focuses on

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and

data protection Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...

work. The managing partner, Walfrido J. "Wally" Martinez, has held that position since March 2006.

Controversies

The firm, when operating as Hunton & Williams, employed William "Bill" Wehrum as a partner. Wehrum, who as a Hunton attorney represented oil and gas corporations, left his partner role when he was appointed to a top position in the Trump Administration

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(EPA). Wehrum's confirmation hearings resulted in controversy, when Wehrum was asked "Are you familiar with the increasing acidity of the ocean?" Wehrum said this was merely an 'allegation.' Wehrum's answers at the confirmation hearing attracted critical coverage. Wehrum was confirmed by a party-line vote and moved from Hunton to the EPA, where he has been described as "delivering for ex-clients." Wehrum's private meetings with oil and gas industry ex-clients, many from his time working at Hunton, have attracted criticism "despite federal ethics rules intended to limit such interactions."

References

External links

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Centre for Information Policy Leadership
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunton and Williams Law firms established in 1901 Law firms based in Richmond, Virginia 1901 establishments in Virginia