A white-shoe firm is an American term used to describe prestigious
professional services
Professional services are occupations in the service sector requiring special training in the arts or sciences. Some professional services, such as architects, accountants, engineers, doctors, and lawyers require the practitioner to hold profe ...
firms that have traditionally been associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
colleges. The term is most often used to describe leading old-line law firms and
Wall Street financial institutions, as well as accounting firms that are over a century old, typically in New York City and Boston.
Former
Wall Street attorney
John Oller, author of ''White Shoe'', credits
Paul Drennan Cravath with creating the distinct model adopted by virtually all white-shoe
law firms
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
, the
Cravath System, just after the turn of the 20th century, about 50 years before the phrase ''white-shoe firm'' came into use.
Etymology
The phrase derives from "
white bucks", laced
suede
Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was firs ...
or
buckskin (or
Nubuck) derby shoes, usually with a red sole, long popular among the student body of
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
colleges.
A 1953 ''
Esquire'' article, describing social strata at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, explained that "White Shoe applies primarily to the socially ambitious and the socially smug types who affect a good deal of worldly sophistication, run, ride and drink in rather small cliques, and look in on the second halves of football games when the weather is good." The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' cites the phrase "white-shoe college boys" in the
J.D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...
novel ''
Franny and Zooey
''Franny ''and'' Zooey'' is a book by American author J. D. Salinger which comprises his short story "Franny" and novella ''Zooey'' . The two works were published together as a book in 1961, having originally appeared in ''The New Yorker'' in 19 ...
'' (1957) as the first use of the term:
"Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day." It also appears in a 1958 ''
Fortune'' article by Spencer Klaw, which describes some firms as having "a predilection for young men who are listed in the
Social Register
The ''Social Register'' is a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes the members of American high society. First published in the 1880s by newspaper columnist Louis Keller, it was later acquired by Malcolm Forbes. Since 2014, ...
. These firms are called 'white-shoe outfits,' a term derived from the buckskin shoes that used to be part of the accepted uniform at certain eastern prep schools and colleges."
Usage
The term originated in the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
colleges and originally reflected a stereotype of old-line firms populated by
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). The term historically had
antisemitic connotations, as many of the New York firms known as white-shoe were considered inaccessible to Jewish lawyers until the 1960s.
The phrase has since lost some of this connotation, but is still defined by
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
's
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database of semantic relations between words in more than 200 languages. WordNet links words into semantic relations including synonyms, hyponyms, and meronyms. The synonyms are grouped into '' synsets'' with short defin ...
as "denoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative". Most white-shoe firms also excluded Roman Catholics. A 2010 column in ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' described the term as synonymous with "big, old, east-coast and fairly traditional." In the 21st century, the term is sometimes used in a general sense to refer to firms that are perceived as prestigious or high-quality; it is also sometimes used in a derogatory manner to denote stodginess, elitism, or a lack of diversity.
Examples
The following U.S. firms are often referred to as being white-shoe firms:
Accountancy
The current
Big Four accounting firms and the former
Big Eight auditors from which they merged:
*
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...
(merged from
Deloitte Haskins & Sells and
Touche Ross)
*
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...
(merged from
Ernst & Whinney and
Arthur Young)
*
KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
(formerly Peat Marwick Mitchell)
*
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...
(merged from
Price Waterhouse
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
and
Coopers & Lybrand)
The only former Big Eight firm not merged into one of the Big Four was
Arthur Andersen
Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...
, which went out of business in 2002 after the
Enron scandal.
Banking
;Traditional:
*
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
*
Dillon, Read & Co. (acquired by
UBS in 1998)
*
First Boston : ''For the company after its acquisition by Credit Suisse, see Credit Suisse First Boston (known as CSFB and CS First Boston)''
The First Boston Corporation was a New York-based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Cred ...
(acquired by
Credit Suisse in 1990)
*
Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (merged with
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
in 1977)
*
J.P. Morgan & Co. (merged with Chase Manhattan in 1996, and became
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
in 2000)
*
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
*
White Weld & Co. (acquired by
Merrill Lynch in 1978)
;Modern:
*
Goldman Sachs
*
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
*
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
*
Evercore
Evercore Inc., formerly known as Evercore Partners, is a global independent investment banking advisory firm founded in 1995 by Roger Altman, David Offensend, and Austin Beutner. The firm has advised on over $4.7 trillion of merger, acquisition, a ...
*
Lazard Frères & Co.
*
UBS
Management Consultancies
The
Big Three (management consultancies), colloquially known as ‘’‘MBB’’’, consisting of the largest
management consulting
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultan ...
firms by revenue:
*
McKinsey & Company
*
Bain & Company
*
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by re ...
Law
;Traditional:
*
Arnold & Porter
*
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (known as Cadwalader) is a white-shoe law firm, and is New York City's oldest law firm and one of the oldest continuously operating legal practices in the United States. Attorney John Wells founded the practice i ...
*
Covington & Burling
*
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
*
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, better known as Davis Polk is a white-shoe, international law firm headquartered in New York City with 980 attorneys worldwide and offices in Washington, D.C., Northern California, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Be ...
*
Debevoise & Plimpton
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...
*
Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is a global law firm. It is one of the largest law firms in the world as measured by revenue and consists of more than 1,800 lawyers across offices in Boston, Cambridge, Frankfurt, Munich, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Luxemb ...
*
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
Milbank LLP (commonly known as Milbank) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. It also has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, and Beijing.
H ...
*
Ropes & Gray
Ropes & Gray LLP is a global law firm with 13 offices located in the United States, Asia and Europe. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers and professionals worldwide, and its clients include corporations and financial institutions, government agen ...
*
Shearman & Sterling
*
Sidley Austin
Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,000 lawyers in 20 offices worldwide. The firm's headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. The firm specializes in a variety of areas in both litigatio ...
*
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
*
Sullivan & Cromwell
*
White & Case
White & Case LLP is a global law firm based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the firm has 46 offices in 31 countries worldwide and has been ranked among the top ten firms worldwide by revenue.
History
The firm was launched on May 1, 1901 wh ...
*
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
*
WilmerHale
;Modern:
While the term "white-shoe" historically applied only to those law firms populated by
WASPs, usage of the term has since been expanded to other top-rated prestigious firms. Many of these firms were founded as a direct result of the exclusionary tendencies of the original white-shoe firms, which provided limited opportunities for Jewish and Catholic lawyers, as well as other non-WASPs, and include:
*
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (founded 1919) is a New York-based international law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and London. The firm is prominent in the practice areas of capital markets and banking & finance.
History
Cahill ...
*
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (known as Cleary Gottlieb) is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide.
History
The ...
*
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (known as Fried Frank), is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Frankfurt, and Brussels, and has more than 500 attorneys w ...
*
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 ...
*
Jones Day
*
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 A ...
*
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
*
O'Melveny & Myers
*
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. By profits per equity partner, it is the fifth most profitable law firm in the world.
...
*
Proskauer Rose
Proskauer Rose LLP (formerly known as Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, LLP) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1875 and currently employs more than 800 attorneys in twelve offices worldwide.
P ...
*
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 800 attorneys throughout 23 offices around the world.
History
The firm was established in 1986 by ...
*
Steptoe & Johnson
Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Brussels, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
History
Philip Steptoe and Louis A. Johnson, both ...
*
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wor ...
*
Squire Patton Boggs
*
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is an American law firm in New York City. The firm is known for corporate law, regularly handling large and complex transactions. On both a profit per lawyer, and profit per equity partner basis, it is the most p ...
*
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Equivalent law firms outside the United States
; Australia:
Big Six. In 2012, three of these firms merged with overseas firms, and one other began operating in association with an overseas firm. As a consequence, it has proposed that the term is no longer applicable to the Australian legal profession, displaced by the concept of Global Elite law firms or International Business law firms.
; Canada (Toronto):
Seven Sisters
; China (People's Republic):
Red Circle, coined by ''
The Lawyer
''The Lawyer'' is a legal business information product for law firm leaders, commercial lawyers, barristers
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. The ...
'' magazine in 2014.
; Japan:
Big Four
; New Zealand: Big Three
; South Africa:
Big Five
; United Kingdom (centered on the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
):
*
Magic Circle
A magic circle is a circle of space marked out by practitioners of some branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be mark ...
, firms with the largest revenues, the most international work and which generally outperform the rest of the London market on profitability.
*
Silver Circle, the next tier below the Magic Circle (there is no Golden Circle
) has firms smaller than those in the Magic Circle, though sometimes with similar level of profits per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer.
;
Offshore financial centers:
Offshore magic circle
References
Further reading
* Wald, Eli, "The rise and fall of the WASP and Jewish law firms." ''Stanford Law Review'' 60 (2007): 1803-1866
online
External links
*
* {{cite news, first=Anthony , last=Lin, work=New York Law Journal, date=May 16, 2006, url=http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1147696528718 , title= Can the 'Jewish Law Firm' Success Story Be Duplicated?
Law firms of the United States
Legal history