Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Firm Details 

Managing Partner: Michael Gerstenzang

Number of partners worldwide: 173

Number of lawyers worldwide: Approximately 1,100

Languages: Multilingual; the firm’s lawyers speak more than 50 different languages

Firm Overview 

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. Since 1946, the firm’s lawyers and staff have worked across practices, industries, jurisdictions and continents to provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges. The firm has 16 offices in major financial centers around the world. However, Cleary operates as a single, integrated global partnership, not a US firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm is fluent in the many languages of local and global business, and Cleary’s consistent success in multiple jurisdictions earned Cleary Chambers and Partners’ inaugural “International Law Firm of the Year” award.

The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than 50 countries and diverse backgrounds who are admitted to practice in numerous jurisdictions. Cleary was among the first international law firms to hire and promote non-US lawyers as equal partners around the world. The firm’s international approach has, from the beginning, included a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion that is central to Cleary’s founding principles and ongoing identity. Cleary believes its lawyers benefit from interacting with the creativity, talents and perspectives contributed by people of different backgrounds and experiences, and that its efforts to nurture diversity enable it to more effectively serve a broader range of clients.

Cleary offers clients robust experience in more than 70 practice areas. All of Cleary’s clients enjoy access to the full resources of its offices and lawyers worldwide, and many of the firm’s attorneys have served in one or more of its offices.

Main Practice Areas 

Corporate: 

Cleary advises clients on a host of transactional matters that protect and advance their strategic goals. Its lawyers have crafted solutions resulting in a number of first-of-its-kind deals, as well as some of the largest, most complex transactions involving cross-border issues. Among other transactional areas, Cleary provides experience in mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures; capital markets, derivatives, structured finance, leveraged and acquisition finance; private equity transactions, private fund formation, privatizations, project finance, banking, bankruptcy & restructuring, real estate, energy, financial technology, infrastructure, sovereign governments, sustainability, global crisis management, international trade and more. Additionally, the team has robust knowledge of the myriad corporate governance, intellectual property and related issues that companies and their boards face.

Dispute Resolution: 

With the increasingly global nature of disputes, Cleary is well positioned to help navigate clients through their most challenging adversarial issues. Firm engagements frequently involve complex legal issues that require novel solutions and cross-border coordination of the firm’s varied resources, allowing Cleary to pair its renowned corporate, regulatory and financial experience with its litigation prowess. Cleary handles litigation and arbitration involving a wide variety of issues, including securities, M&A, shareholder derivative claims, general commercial disputes, intellectual property, antitrust, bankruptcy, white-collar crime, anti-corruption, sovereign debt, investment treaties and public international law.

Regulatory: 

The global regulatory landscape is ever-changing, and Cleary lawyers continue to draw upon a breadth of experience to proactively advise clients on emerging issues, as well as respond to increasing regulatory scrutiny related to transactions or in connection with potential risks that can lead to litigation or enforcement action. The firm has significant experience in such areas as antitrust, issues unique to financial institutions, cybersecurity and privacy, environmental law, foreign direct investment and sanctions, tax, and compliance.In Europe, lawyers include former officials of the European Court of Justice, the General Court and the European Commission. The U.S. team includes former senior officials of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Offices: 

USA 

New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Washington, DC

EUROPE & THE MIDDLE EAST 

Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Paris, Rome

ASIA PACIFIC 

Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul

LATIN AMERICA 

São Paulo