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2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Make a Meaningful Impact

At Cleary, you'll have the opportunity to:

  • Contribute to high-profile, complex matters that shape industries and legal precedent
  • Focus on what truly matters, cutting through complexity to deliver results
  • Address immediate client needs while advancing their long-term strategic goals

Thrive in a Culture of Excellence

Our proven track record of innovation and consistent success across multiple jurisdictions creates an environment where talented professionals can excel. You'll be part of a team that speaks the language of global business fluently and approaches each challenge with creativity and precision.

Build a Career Without Borders

Working at Cleary means joining a community where your skills can transcend geographical limitations. Our collaborative approach ensures you'll develop expertise that's valued across markets and jurisdictions, positioning you for long-term professional growth.

Key Distinctions

Counsel to Over 50 Sovereigns

Counsel in Over 1,200 Completed M&A Transactions Worldwide Since 2015, Valued at Over $2.6 Trillion (Refinitiv)

Largest Ever Sovereign Debt Restructuring

Largest Ever Leveraged Buyout

Largest Ever Real Estate Transaction

Largest Ever Patent Portfolio Sale

Most Prominent Antitrust Case of the Decade

Represented Over 50 Financial Institutions in Financial Crisis-Related Litigation

Who We Are

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession, known for its prescient, early foray into Europe. Expanding beyond its New York and DC offices in 1946, the firm set up shop in Paris in 1949, hiring local lawyers who were partially trained in the United States and giving the foreign lawyers equal partnership. The firmed opened an office in Brussels in 1960, just a few years before the formation of the European Community in 1967, which is based in the city. The firm would then play a leading role in the burgeoning Eurodollar markets. A London outpost followed in 1971 and a Hong Kong office in 1980. As other firms discovered international expansion in the 1990s and 2000s, Cleary added another five European offices. More recently, the firm has continued its expansion in Asia, South America, and the Middle East over the last decade or so. Still, no matter how far the firm roams, Wall Street will always be home.

From the beginning, our 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, whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility, commercial acumen, and a human touch.

We provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges, whether domestic or international. Our proven track record for serving with innovation means we are fluent in the many languages of local and global business, achieving consistent success across multiple jurisdictions. Global corporations, financial institutions, sovereign governments, local businesses, and individuals come to us for consistently practical and forward-looking advice.

An Integrated Global Partnership

We have 14 offices in major financial centers around the world, but we operate as an integrated global partnership and not a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations.

  • All Cleary clients enjoy access to the full resources provided by our offices and lawyers worldwide.
  • The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than 50 countries.
  • Cleary received Chambers and Partners’ inaugural “International Law Firm of the Year” award, recognizing our global practice and our pioneering tradition of developing homegrown talent in the different countries where we operate.

Clients

We serve international and national business organizations, financial institutions, sovereign governments and their agencies, nonprofits and community organizations, and civil rights and human rights groups.

Notable clients include:

ABB

Allergan

Alphabet (Google)

Amazon

American Express

American Tower

Bank of America

Barclays

BNP Paribas

Broadcom

Brookfield

Citigroup

The Coca-Cola Company

Con Edison

Crédit Agricole

Disney

 

The Dominic Republic

The French State

Garuda Indonesia

Genesis

General Mills

GlobalFoundries

GSK

Goldman Sachs

Goodyear

Government of Barbados

HCA Healthcare

KKR

Korean Air

Keurig Dr Pepper

LATAM Airlines

Lenovo

Liberty Mutual

McCormick

NVIDIA

Petrobras

Republic of Paraguay

Republic of Senegal

Republic of Uraguay

Sixth Street

Synopsys

Telecom Argentina

Telecom Italia

Tempur Sealy

T-Mobile

TPG

United Mexican States

Walgreens Boots Alliance

Warburg Pincus

Whirlpool

Partnership and Firm Culture

Our firm’s organization and governance emphasize democratic and participatory ideals. We strive to admit to our partnership lawyers with demonstrated qualities of character, leadership, and intelligence, who have the proven legal skills that will enable them to contribute significantly to our practice over the long term.

  • Approximately 80 percent of our current partners joined the firm as associates.
  • More than one-third of our partners have served in two or more Cleary offices.
  • Over 40 percent of our partners are based outside of the United States.
  • Our partnership as a whole decides all important firm matters, including considering candidates for partnership, while committees of partners and counsel under the guidance of the managing partner conduct the day-to-day management of the firm.

Our associates also actively participate in a number of firm-sponsored programs and initiatives, including leadership and professional development curricula, affinity groups, working groups and committees, and more.

Consistent with the vision of our founders, Cleary remains committed to building a culture of inclusion and community focused on openness, individuality, and collegiality. Learn more.

The essence of the firm’s culture is represented by our lawyers: talented and intellectually accomplished people of all nationalities, races, and interests, who believe that the practice of law is a privilege that carries responsibility. Together, we apply our legal knowledge for the benefit of those in need, dedicating a substantial amount of time and resources to pro bono legal work and other community activities. Learn more about Cleary’s pro bono program.

Workplace and Pro Bono:

John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award
American Bar Association, 2024

Pro Bono Champion Award
Pro Bono Partnership, 2024

Pro Bono Partner of the Year Award
Advocates for Trans Equality Education Fund, 2024

 Pro Bono Partner Award
New York County Defender Services, 2024

Pro Bono Publico Award
The Legal Aid Society, 2009-2024

Top 10 Firm for Female Attorneys
Law360’s Women in Law Report, 2024

Top 20 Firm in the Pro Bono Scorecard
The American Lawyer, 2024

 

 

24 Lawyers Named to Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll
The District of Columbia Courts (in partnership with the D.C. Access to Justice Commission and the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center), 2024

 

Best International Firm: Work-Life Balance
Euromoney Americas Women in Business Law Awards, 2023

 

Corporate Hero Award
Center for Family Life (CFL), 2023

 

View Cleary’s latest matters, press releases, and honors.