Skip to Main Content
Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP logo

Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP

At a Glance

Uppers

“Work-life balance, firm culture, interesting work, opportunity to work on pro bono matters.”

“Early responsibility, partner interaction.”

Downers

“The long hours.”

“Slowness at adopting pay raises and bonuses.”

About Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP

With 250 lawyers operating out of 10 offices across the U.S, Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP is a litigation powerhouse whose lawyers have extensive trial experience representing clients as both defendants and plaintiffs.

Firm with a Mission

Kasowitz launched in 1993 in New York, when Marc Kasowitz, Dan Benson, and Hector Torres formed a litigation shop to tackle high-stakes matters efficiently and with innovative litigation strategies. The founders’ vision was to create a firm that offered a client-driven approach while also embodying a non-hierarchical, collaborative atmosphere among its lawyers. Today, the firm’s three name partners continue to work actively with the next generation of partners to lead the firm in its client matters, diversity initiatives, associate development, and more.  

Laser-Focused on Litigation

Kasowitz’s bread and butter is litigation, with almost all of the firm’s lawyers focused on the area. The firm handles virtually every kind of litigation on both the defense and plaintiff side, and represents clients across myriad industries, including financial services, manufacturing, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, real estate and hospitality, technology, and transportation. 

Kasowitz is well known for its work in commercial litigation and trial experience. The firm has been named by Law 360 as Practice Group of the Year for Trials and has been recognized by the likes of Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation for its litigation prowess. Among areas the firm’s litigators handle are antitrust, breach of contract, civil RICO, products liability, securities, and unfair competition—to name a handful. The firm represented MBIA in the ten-year-plus residential mortgage-back securitization put back action against Credit Suisse, recovering over $600 million; MF Global Holdings in the $3 billion accounting malpractice trial against PwC; and Fairfax Financial Holdings in a New Jersey RICO matter, through which the firm recovered $31 million—to name some of the firm’s litigation highlights.

Home to a strong real estate practice, Kasowitz assists clients with a broad range of disputes—from air and development rights to contract issues to fraud to foreclosures, and much more. The firm’s bankruptcy lawyers are nothing to sneeze at either, with clients including bondholders, hedge funds, private equity funds, secured lenders, and other creditors. The firm has been involved in such notable restructuring/bankruptcy matters as Adelphia, China Fishery, Enron, Fred’s, J. Crew, Lehman Brothers, Lightsquared, Nine West, MDC Energy, Toys "R" Us, and WorldCom.

Nurturing Associate Development

Kasowitz associates head back to the classroom in their first days at the firm through “Kasowitz University”—the firm’s training program for incoming associates. The goal of the program is to provide new lawyers practical litigation experience, including writing skills and the ins-and-outs of initiating and conducting a litigation. 

The firm also implements a hands-on assignment system through which associates are encouraged to work with various partners. Assigning partners focus on each individual associates’ career progression to expose them to the skills and experiences they need to develop their practices.

COVID-19 Update

Kasowitz Benson Torres quickly pivoted to a fully remote work environment in 2020 and held a successful remote summer program. Our summer associates received the same high-quality work assignments and professional experiences virtually as they did in-person in prior years. Our partners and associates engaged frequently with our summer associates during training sessions, formal work assignment discussions, and remote social activities. We provided mentorship opportunities in addition to more formal legal training, all while introducing our summer associates to our firm’s welcoming environment. Our first virtual recruiting season ended successfully, with us hiring 12 summer associates for our 2021 Summer Program.

Throughout the pandemic, we have continued to meet the firm’s hiring needs, successfully recruiting for various departments and onboarding lateral attorneys firmwide.

Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP

1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 506-1700

Firm Stats

Managing Partner: Marc E. Kasowitz
Hiring Committee Chairs: Albert Shemmy Mishaan and Cindy Caranella Kelly
Total No. Attorneys (2022):
150 - 250
No. of Partners Named 2022:
3

Base Salary

  • Class of 2022 and 2021: $215,000
  • Class of 2020: $225,000
  • Class of 2019: $250,000
  • Class of 2018: $295,000
  • Class of 2017: $345,000
  • Class of 2016: $370,000
  • Class of 2015: $400,000
  • Class of 2014: $415,000

Employment Contact

Mindy J. Lindenman
Chief Legal Recruitment Officer
(212) 506-1918
mlindenman@kasowitz.com

No. of U.S. Offices: 10

No. of International Offices: 0

Major Office Locations

Atlanta, GA
Denver, CO
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
New York, NY (HQ)
Newark, NJ
San Francisco, CA
Silicon Valley, CA
Washington, DC

Major Departments

Commercial Litigation
Antitrust Litigation
Bankruptcy Litigation and Restructuring
Employment Litigation
Government Affairs and Strategic Counsel
Intellectual Property Litigation
Matrimonial and Family Law
Real Estate Litigation
Securities Litigation
Software Litigation
White Collar Defense and Investigations