Skadden

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Skadden is one of the most profitable and well-known law firms in the world. It was the first law firm to exceed $1 billion in annual revenue, now the industry brass ring. Renowned for its M&A prowess, the firm is an all-star across practice areas, boasting an army of nearly 1,700 lawyers around the globe.

If the Shoe Fits

Launched in 1948 by Marshall Skadden, Les Arps, and John Slate, Skadden wasn’t afraid to jump into proxy-fight work during the 1950s and 1960s, setting the stage for the hostile takeovers the firm handled in later years. Much of Skadden’s ethos can be attributed to Joe Flom, who participated in most of the major M&A deals of the 1970s and 1980s, establishing Skadden’s reputation for aggressive strategies and spearheading the firm’s practice diversification efforts. Skadden boasts top-notch practices in capital markets, banking, private equity, antitrust, tax, Web3/digital assets, white collar defense, appellate and international arbitration, commercial litigation, securities litigation, products liability litigation, restructuring, national security, intellectual property, real estate, energy and infrastructure, and countless others.

Brioche and Butter

Multifaceted as it is, Skadden’s forte is still M&A. Deals such as DuPont-Conoco, U.S. Steel-Marathon Oil, and the 1989 takeover of RJR Nabisco launched Skadden into the top rung of American law firms. Skadden represented Activision Blizzard in its $75 billion acquisition deal by Microsoft, the largest-ever technology deal and gaming industry deal. The firm is a mainstay atop Vault’s M&A rankings and regularly ranks in the top tier for M&A by Chambers USA, Chambers Global, Best Lawyers, and The Legal 500, and in 2015, was the first firm to handle over $1 trillion in globally announced M&A deals in a single year.

Don’t be deceived by Skadden’s M&A foundation—the firm’s litigators are first rate. The firm has been named a finalist in the New York Law Journal’s Litigation Department of the Year competition in the General Litigation, Class Action, and Finance categories. It has held a top spot in Vault’s Securities Litigation rankings since 2011 and has been repeatedly named Law Firm of the Year for Mergers and Acquisitions Litigation and Securities Litigation by Best Lawyers. The firm is a member of BTI Consulting Group’s Feared Opponents and has been named repeatedly among its Fearsome Foursome.

Skadden has also consistently ranked No. 1 for Tax in Vault’s rankings and was the only firm to achieve Tier 1 rankings for Transactional Tax in all four of the key trans-Atlantic financial centers of Frankfurt, London, New York, and Paris in ITR World Tax 2024. The firm’s Tax Group assists clients in resolving large, complex, and global tax controversies, as well as handling tax investigations and defending tax-related class actions and professional liability disputes.

Do-Gooders

Pro bono isn’t merely an afterthought at Skadden. In 2023, Skadden attorneys in the United States averaged more than 128 hours of pro bono work. Attorneys and business services professionals at the firm have completed nearly 3 million pro bono hours in the past 15 years, with nearly than 200,000 pro bono hours in 2023. All pro bono hours count toward the firm’s 1,800 billable hour target, and the firm utilizes a practice area model to drive efficiencies in its delivery of immigration-related pro bono legal services. As a result of the program’s success, plans are underway to launch other pro bono projects using this model. The firm also offers public interest externship programs with the Legal Aid Society of New York; the Legal Aid Society of Washington, DC; and the Lawyers Alliance for New York. In addition, Skadden is a member and was instrumental in the formation of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance.

• Activision Blizzard on its $75 billion acquisition by Microsoft, the largest-ever technology deal and largest-ever gaming industry deal.
• DuPont in its $130 billion merger with Dow Chemical (one of the largest-ever mergers), including securing clearance by the DOJ and approvals from the EU, China and several other jurisdictions.
• Xiaomi in its $5.4 billion IPO and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange — the first-ever Hong Kong offering to adopt a dual-class share structure and the first to list under a new regime for innovative technology companies.
• Amazon.com, Inc. in a victory in one of the largest transfer pricing cases in decades and the first involving e-commerce. In rejecting the IRS' attempt to assert over $1 billion of additional tax liability, the U.S. Tax Court ruled that the government's approach was "arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable."

• Best Law Firms for Women, 2023 — Seramount
• Mansfield Rule Certified Plus, 2023 — Diversity Lab
• A-List, 2023 — The American Lawyer:  Top Ten Most Successful Firms
• New York Law Journal’s 2023 New York Legal Awards: More overall awards than any other firm
• Most practice group wins among peer firms (90) since inception (2010) — Law360 Practice Groups of the Year