2022 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Morgan Lewis has branched out from its Philadelphia roots to build a global network of lawyers in 31 offices, reaching from Boston to Singapore and San Francisco to Dubai. The firm’s strengths include litigation, labor and employment, employee benefits, intellectual property, energy, investment management, structured transactions, and a variety of regulatory areas.

Philly Roots, Global Presence

Morgan Lewis was founded in Philadelphia in 1873 by Charles Eldridge Morgan, Jr., a Civil War vet, and Francis Draper Lewis, a cotton merchant’s son. Ten years later, Morgan and Lewis hired Morris Rex Bockius, who became a driving force behind the firm for nearly four decades. In the early 1880s, the firm’s fortunes soared when it acquired United Gas Improvement Company as a client; the company eventually grew into the largest gas and electricity operation in the United States and remains a Morgan Lewis client to this day. 

Based largely on the profile it built from representing United Gas, Morgan Lewis brought key newspapers, railroads, paper companies, rail companies, and financial institutions into the fold in the ensuing decades. The firm has expanded beyond its long-held East Coast clients and now represents nearly 90 percent of the Fortune 100 companies, while at the same time maintaining relationships with its long-term clients.

From Labor to Energy

Practicing across the energy, financial services, health care, life sciences, retail, sports, technology, and transportation sectors, Morgan Lewis has a diverse range of experience. The firm has four core practices: corporate, finance, and investment management; IP; labor, employment, and benefits; and litigation, regulation, and investigations.

Morgan Lewis is perhaps best known for its labor and employment work. Nearly 400 of the firm’s lawyers counsel clients on a range of employment and labor issues, from benefits and ERISA to executive compensation and global employment matters and from labor relations and OSHA matters to wage and hour issues and whistleblowing—plus many more. The firm is among the top five in Vault’s Labor & Employment ranking. And the practice even has its own Twitter handle: @MLWORKFORCE.

The firm also boasts an impressive energy practice, which crosses borders and practices to deliver advice for its clients’ complex issues. Morgan Lewis lawyers handle all facets of energy transactions—from development to financing to acquisition to divestiture of resources—as well as regulatory issues regarding energy. The firm has experience handling matters relating to oil and gas, electric, nuclear, and renewable energy.

Big Impact

Morgan Lewis contributed more than 137,432 pro bono hours in 2020 to more than 2,100 pro bono clients. Every lawyer in the firm recorded at least 20 hours to pro bono matters, with the average hours per attorney being closer to 66 hours. In addition to its year-round pro bono and community service initiatives, all 31 of Morgan Lewis’ offices collaborate on an annual Community Impact Week, a global firm initiative comprising 175 community service and pro bono-related programs. More than 1,500 lawyers and staff participate in the program. The firm has five full-time lawyers running the program, including a partner who focuses exclusively on impact litigation and serves as the firm’s first senior pro bono trial lawyer.

• Morgan Lewis secured a historic settlement for Black families combating nearly a century of government-sponsored segregation in Baltimore—using funds to launch our ML Foundation granting scholarships to diverse law students.
• Morgan Lewis filed an amicus brief for 379 employers in the landmark Obergefell U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
• Morgan Lewis represented the U.S. Soccer Federation in collective bargaining, culminating in first-of-their-kind equal pay agreements for the women’s and men’s national teams.
• Morgan Lewis won a $1.5 million jury verdict for PBS against former host Tavis Smiley for violating his contract’s “morals clause.”

• A-List Law Firm, 2018-2022—The American Lawyer 
• Top 100 Most Prestigious Firms, 2014-2022—Vault 
• Mansfield Certification Plus, 2019-2022—Diversity Lab 
• Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality, 2009-2022—Human Rights Campaign Foundation Corporate Equality Index
• Best Law Firms for Women, 2020-2022—Seramount