With around 600 attorneys, Blank Rome has been a Philly staple since the 1940s, but the firm isn’t exclusive to the City of Brotherly Love—its 15 offices span the U.S. and China. Over the course of the firm’s existence, Blank Rome has developed into a general practice firm, representing clients in the real estate, financial services, chemical, technology, energy, and life sciences industries and sectors. Adding to the list, the firm recently expanded its focus on consumer financial services; cyber security and data privacy; energy, petrochemical, and natural resources; and intellectual property. Additionally, the firm has nationally and internationally recognized maritime, matrimonial, insurance recovery, and government contracts practices. 

Pennsylvania Roots

Blank Rome’s history dates back to its founding as the two-man firm Blank & Rudenko in 1946 by UPenn grads Samuel A. Blank and William B. Rudenko, who wanted to create a diverse and inclusive work environment following their exclusion from other local firms as a result of religious discrimination. Marvin Comisky—whose name was on the masthead for decades—joined the firm in 1959 and served as its first managing partner beginning in 1969. As Chancellor of the Philadelphia bar, Comisky was responsible for the city’s firms ending their practice of religious discrimination in hiring in the mid-1960s.

Wide-Ranging, Yet Focused

While Blank Rome’s practice scope runs the gamut, the firm also boasts some niches. The Manhattan office houses some of the most prominent (read: lucrative) matrimonial and estates and trusts practices in the United States, along with dominant practices in mergers & acquisitions, international and maritime litigation, financial services, and real estate. The firm’s Washington, DC, office is home to leading IP, government contracts, insurance recovery, international trade, shipping, litigation, and government relations practices. Blank Rome is one of a growing handful of firms that have turned to lobbying to complement its legal practice. Blank Rome Government Relations LLC, established in 2003, lobbies on Capitol Hill and in select state capitals, focusing on influencing policy for clients in such areas as technology and communications, energy, defense and national security, transportation, and healthcare. 

A Firm that Trials Together

If there is one thing that Blank Rome takes seriously, it is professional development. Each associate helps select a career development advisor focused on that associate’s level and with whom the associate meets at least quarterly. The firm has a competency-based career development framework—which informs assignments—and also a robust feedback process, in which virtually every supervising lawyer actively participates and provides feedback to associates at least twice per year (over 98% participation each time). The firm hosts a variety of training programs, including its annual Blank Rome Trial Academy, through which associates are divided into teams and participate in intensive practice sessions and mock trials—with coaching—in the courthouse at Philadelphia City Hall. Former and active judges serve as judges for the program, and attorneys and staff join in as jurors and witnesses.

• Overturning 25-year precedent, secured a landmark ruling enabling non-biological, same-sex parents, without formal adoption, to seek custody and visitation of co-parented children.
• Blank Rome Partner Edwin P. Rome served as counsel for Aaron “Treetop” Turner, a client on Pennsylvania’s Death Row, representing him for more than 11 years and through five separate trials and appeals, until Mr. Turner was exonerated and freed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
• Represented Tallgrass, a Blackstone-affiliated energy and infrastructure company, in its acquisition of Ruby Pipeline through a competitive auction process supervised by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The transaction involved cash consideration of approximately $290 million.
• Represented Novus Capital Corporation II in its $1.34B business combination with Energy Vault, Inc., to develop global, grid-scale energy storage solutions.

• Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality, 2022—Human Rights Campaign
• Summer and Midlevel Associate Satisfaction, 2022—The American Lawyer
• Best Law Firms for Women, 2022—Seramount 
• Best Place for Working Parents, 2022—Best Place for Working Parents
• Mansfield Certification Plus 5.0, 2022—Diversity Lab