Jenner & Block

From its Windy City roots, Jenner & Block has grown to more than 500 lawyers with offices in Chicago; London; Los Angeles (both downtown and in Century City); New York; San Francisco; and Washington, DC. The client roster is a blend of established corporate institutions and trendy players in the arts, entertainment, consumer brands, and technology. 

A Litigation Star Is Born

Jenner & Block was founded in 1914 as Newman, Poppenhusen & Stern by a trio of lawyers with big-name Chicago firm pedigrees. In its early years, the firm advised the city’s banks, mortgage houses, and blue-collar corporations. In the roaring 1920s, however, the firm took on a decidedly increased high-profile identity as litigator Edward Johnston developed into one of the nation’s foremost antitrust attorneys. With a victory in the landmark 1925 U.S. Supreme Court case Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association v. United States, Johnston dismantled the Justice Department’s argument that the exchange of information by trade association members constituted a violation of antitrust law. Thus, Johnston cemented the firm’s reputation as a litigation powerhouse.

Collaboration Is Key

Jenner & Block has leading international litigation, arbitration, and investigations practices. The firm also boasts a top-notch appellate team, which has secured victories in courts at all levels on a variety of issues and has recorded more than 100 arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the landmark win for LGBTQ+ rights in Lawrence v. Texas. The firm’s litigation department is “fully integrated,” which means lawyers work across subpractices and regions through collaboration, and includes Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers and former U.S. attorneys, U.S. Supreme Court clerks, and  General Counsels, among others. The firm is also one of just a handful of firms that has been nationally recognized for its Higher Education, Native American Law, and Law Firm Defense practices.

Although the firm is known mostly for its litigation prowess, Jenner does many things well: from investigations to government strategy and regulatory to transactional work. The corporate practice is oriented around M&A but covers an array of complex transactions and counsels for a wide range of clients, from large public companies, middle-market and emerging companies, and closely-held family businesses to private equity and other funds and investors. The firm also engages in groundbreaking work on LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, AI, civil rights, and environmental issues through task forces, pro bono efforts, and daily work.

A Professional Home

Jenner is a firm invested in their attorneys’ development and professional journey. Junior associates can explore different practice areas before matching with a group to join—usually as third-year associates—and receive billable credit for a broad array of activities during their first year at the firm, a practice designed to encourage firm engagement, exploration, and experience. The firm provides professional development programming, including cohort-specific multi-day in-person programs, topic-specific bootcamps/CLEs, and diversity-focused programming, as well as personalized support—with one-on-one career and performance coaching, individual check-ins, forward-focused development conversations, and career planning support. Associates have the opportunity for leadership roles, including on the Associates Committee, affinity groups, task forces, and special initiatives, all aimed to develop them into the future owners of the firm.

• Jenner & Block Partner Shoba Pillay conducted a comprehensive investigation and produced a Final Report as the court-appointed Examiner in In re Celsius Network LLC, et al., regarding Celsius’s crypto assets and public representations, Celsius’s bitcoin mining utility obligations, and certain tax procedures.  
• Partner Anton Valukas was appointed as the examiner in the Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy, reputed to be the largest such case in US history. The resulting account, coined by the press as the “Valukas Report,” was universally applauded for its clarity and usefulness in determining what brought about the demise of Lehman Brothers, an event many commentators point to as the precipitating event triggering the economic crisis of 2008.
• Jenner & Block is representing Albertsons in its publicly announced and pending acquisition by Kroger valued at $25 billion. The deal is expected to close in early 2024.
• Jenner & Block represented three tribes, Cherokee Nation, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and Oneida Nation, before the US Supreme Court in Brackeen v. Haaland, a case concerning the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The 7-2 decision upheld ICWA in its entirety.

• #1 Law Firm for Pro Bono, 2023 – Law360 Pro Bono Pulse Survey
• Appellate Hot List, 2023 – The National Law Journal
• WIPL Managing Partner of the Year 2023, Katya Jestin – Corporate Counsel
• Mansfield Rule Plus Certified, 2023 —Diversity Lab
• “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality,” 2023 – Human Rights Campaign