Dechert
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Dechert LLP is an international law firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with top-ranked practices in corporate and securities, complex litigation, finance and real estate, and financial services and asset management. Dechert has offices throughout the United States and Europe. It was founded in Philadelphia and is registered as a limited liability partnership under Pennsylvania law.
The firm's core practices are corporate and securities, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and corporate finance; litigation, emphasizing antitrust, intellectual property, product liability, and white collar and securities defense; finance and real estate, with a focus on mortgage finance, structured finance, securitization, and investment; financial services, focusing on mutual funds, hedge funds, variable products, broker-dealer, commodities, derivatives, and investment advisers; and intellectual property, emphasizing patent litigation and IP prosecution and licensing.
The firm also has well-established practices in tax, bankruptcy, employment, health, and environmental law.
Its product liability litigation group has represented Philip Morris in class action suits and is currently representing Merck & Co. in suits regarding the drug Vioxx.
Former Bush White House staffer Scooter Libby managed the D.C. office of Dechert prior to accepting the position of Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. After being implicated in the Valerie Plame spy scandal, Libby retained Joseph Tate, a Dechert partner, as his attorney.
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[edit] Offices
[edit] USA
- Austin
- Boston
- Charlotte (Bank of America Corporate Center)
- Hartford
- Newport Beach
- New York (1095 6th Avenue)
- Philadelphia (Cira Centre, One Liberty Place)
- Princeton
- San Francisco
- Silicon Valley
- Washington, DC
[edit] Europe
Dechert opened its first European office in Brussels in 1968. Four years later, Dechert opened a London office and later established a presence in Paris in 1995. In 2000, the firm undertook a major expansion in the United Kingdom through a merger with Titmuss Sainer Dechert, a leading London law firm. Since then, Dechert has opened offices in Luxembourg and Munich.
[edit] Assistance to Guantanamo captives
Attorneys from Dechert prepared the habeas corpus petition for Omar Deghayes, one of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1][2] Attorneys from Dechert traveled to Afghanistan to check out the captives' alibis. Peter Ryan, represented Nasrat Khan, a grandfather, who had a stroke in 1988, and was confined to a walker, was one of his clients.[3]
Charles "Cully" Stimson, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, stirred controversy when he went on record criticizing the patriotism of law firms that allowed employees to assist Guantanamo captives: "corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists." [4] Stimson's views were widely criticized. The Pentagon disavowed them. And he resigned shortly thereafter.
[edit] References
- ^ "Pro Bono: A Firm Commitment, a Firmwide Effort", Dechert. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
- ^ Anne R. Cooke. "A Legal Take on Guantanamo Bay", Washington Spark, Friday, December 1, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
- ^ Mahvish Khan. "My Guantanamo Diary: Face to Face With the War on Terrorism", Washington Post, Sunday, April 30, 2006, pp. B01. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
- ^ Lewis, Neil. "Official attacks top law firms over detainees", New York Times, 2007-01-13. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
