Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP was an American law firm headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. At its peak, the firm was made up of approximately 365 attorneys with offices in New York City;
Washington, D.C.
)
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;
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
;
White Plains, New York
(Always Faithful)
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; and
Summit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...
.
History
The firm traced its founding back to 1848, when
Benjamin Franklin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best ...
opened a legal practice with his son,
William Allen Butler
William Allen Butler (February 20, 1825 – September 9, 1902) was an American lawyer and writer of poetical satires.
Early life
Butler was born on February 20, 1825, in Albany, New York. He was the son of the poet and lawyer Benjamin Franklin Bu ...
, at 29
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
in New York City. The firm was headquartered in downtown Manhattan from 1848 until 2001, eventually occupying floors 38 through 40 of the
2 World Trade Center
2 World Trade Center (2 WTC; also known as 200 Greenwich Street) is a planned skyscraper as part of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It will replace the original 2 World Trade Center, which was completed in 1972 and ...
building prior to the building's destruction in the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. All of the firm's employees survived the attacks, and the firm temporarily relocated to midtown Manhattan before moving to 2 World Financial Center in September 2003.
Thacher Proffitt was a market leader in the
mortgage-backed securities
A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an 'instrument') which is secured by a mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals (a government agency or investment ba ...
(MBS) market, and in fact was instrumental in the creation of the residential MBS and commercial MBS markets. The firm so controlled the market that the standard documentation used by mortgage traders was known as "Thacher docs" and "TP&W forms." The firm grew from 177 lawyers in 2003 to 350 lawyers in 2007, mostly due to the strength of its structured finance practice, which came to constitute 70% of the firm's revenue. The firm also had highly regarded
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
,
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 ...
, corporate, tax and derivatives practices. In 2006, the firm was ranked among the top 200 by ''
The American Lawyer
''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.Vault
Vault may refer to:
* Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards
Architecture
* Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space
* Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored
* Burial vault (enclosure ...
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The compa ...
(which had been the firm's largest client), significantly impacted the firm, leading to a breach of the firm's financing covenants and giving its lender,
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...
, substantial control. The firm's offices in Mexico City and White Plains, New York, decamped to
Chadbourne & Parke
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, founded in 1902 by Thomas L. Chadbourne, was a 400 lawyer firm, which operated from
12 offices, in ten countries. Chadbourne was probably best known for its global practice in project finance and energy, international ...
and
Greenberg Traurig
Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law firm founded in Miami in 1967. As of 2022, the Greenberg Traurig is the 9th largest law firm in the United States.
The firm has 43 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and ...
respectively. The firm had merger talks at one point with
King & Spalding
King & Spalding LLP is an American international corporate law firm that is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and with offices located in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It has over 1,200 lawyers in 23 offices globally. It is Am ...
, but these talks collapsed in December 2008. On December 21, 2008, approximately 100 lawyers (including 40 partners) left Thacher Proffitt & Wood to work for
Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (informally Sonnenschein) was an international law firm with nearly 800 lawyers and other professionals in the United States and Europe, serving businesses, non-profits and individuals. Two days later, on December 23, the firm's management officially announced dissolution of the firm. Shortly prior to its dissolution, the firm had been hired to advise the
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
in connection with the
Troubled Asset Relief Program
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President G ...