Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Debevoise & Plimpton is one of New York’s most powerful law firms and represents high-profile clients in transactions and disputes in established and emerging markets around the world. The firm’s core franchise practices include strategic and private equity, M&A, insurance, fund formation, complex litigation, white collar/investigations, and international arbitration.

Good Genes

Eli Whitney Debevoise, a direct descendent of the cotton gin inventor, and William E. Stevenson founded their firm in New York in 1931. Debevoise wasn’t the only one with an interesting background; Stevenson was a gold medalist on the 1,600-meter relay team in the 1924 Olympics. Francis T. P. Plimpton, whose name graced the masthead starting in 1933, was the father of famed journalist and writer George Plimpton.

A+ All Around

The Debevoise corporate department remains the largest at the firm, with M&A and private equity teams leading the charge. The firm’s lawyers advise on transactions for some of the world’s most prominent corporations, financial services institutions, and private equity firms. The firm has particularly strong experience with complex leveraged acquisitions and cross-border transactions across a range of industries. Debevoise represents private equity firms in fundraising and deal activity, including work for both the firms and their portfolio companies through an integrated approach. The firm’s financial institutions group advises on complex banking, insurance, securities broker-dealer, and investment management matters, drawing on deep industry knowledge.

On the litigation side, the firm boasts one of the premier and most active white collar practices in the country and represents clients in the United States and abroad in criminal and SEC investigations and litigation, as well as in parallel civil and administrative proceedings. The white collar group includes the firm’s highly regarded data strategy and security practice comprising lawyers who advise on a range of AI issues. The firm has a strong international arbitration practice through which it handles many significant international arbitrations, including treaty and other public law arbitrations. The firm’s intellectual property team is stellar, covering trademark, trade dress, false advertising, anti-counterfeiting, unfair competition, copyright, trade secret, patent, First Amendment, information technology, domain names, and right of publicity matters.

Career Resources

Debevoise lawyers can get down to business during their first few weeks at the firm; that is, the firm offers a mini MBA program focusing on business and finance education. Faculty directors are sourced both internally and from Columbia Business School.

The firm doesn’t focus solely on getting associates on their feet practice-wise. It also offers resources for associates to develop their career goals by providing an internal career counselor and a professional development group that provides informal mentoring.

• Advising Warner Bros. Discovery in its sale to Paramount Skydance Corporation at an enterprise value of $110 billion, the second largest media deal ever and the largest all-cash transaction in corporate history.
• Advised Global Infrastructure Partners on the closing of a $25.2 billion infrastructure fund, the largest infrastructure fund raised globally to date.
• Represented American Express in a settlement with the DOJ and a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York following a five-year investigation into several of the bank’s sales practices.
• Reduced prison sentences by a total of 3,000 years for 70 clients through the firm’s Holloway Project, a multiyear effort to address outdated mandatory sentencing laws later reversed by Congress. More than 200 lawyers have devoted over 54,000 hours to these representations since 2016.

• Top 10 in U.S. and U.K. A-List, 2025—Law.com
• Practice Group of the Year in Fund Formation and Private Equity categories, 2026—Law360
• International Arbitration Firm of the Year, 2026—Benchmark Litigation
• 100% score on the Corporate Equality Index and designated one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality, 2025—Human Rights Campaign