White shoe firm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White shoe firm is a phrase used to describe the leading professional services firms in America, particularly firms that have been in existence for more than a century and represent Fortune 500 companies. It frequently—but not always—refers to securities, law and management consulting firms, and frequently (but not always) refers to firms in New York City. A similar phrase, Magic Circle, refers to law firms in the UK, while the Big Six refers to leading Australian law firms and Seven Sisters to similar Canadian firms.
According to William Safire, the phrase derives from "white bucks", a type of laced suede or buckskin shoe with a red sole, long popular among upper-class New Englanders, especially at Ivy League colleges.[1] Originally, it reflected a stereotype of old-line firms populated by WASPs, but the phrase has since become innocuous. In the case of investment banks (Goldman, Lazard, Lehman), the term referenced not only WASPs but also aristocratic Jews.
Contents |
[edit] Examples of white shoe firms
 |
This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
The following firms are often referred to as being White Shoe firms:
[edit] Securities firms
- Brown Brothers Harriman[2]
- Goldman Sachs[3]
- JPMorgan Chase[4][5]
- Lazard[6]
- Lehman Brothers[7]
- Merrill Lynch[8]
- Morgan Stanley[9]
[edit] Law firms
- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft[10][11]
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore[12]
- Covington & Burling [13][14]
- Davis Polk & Wardwell[15]
- Debevoise & Plimpton[16]
- Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP[17]
- Shearman & Sterling[18]
- Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett[19]
- Sullivan & Cromwell[20]
- White & Case[21]
[edit] The "New" White-Shoe Law firms
While the term "white shoe" historically applied only to those law firms populated by WASPs, usage of the term has since been expanded to other top-rated prestigious law firms. Many of these firms were founded as a direct result of the exclusionary tendencies of the original White-Shoe firms which provided limited opportunities for Jewish and Catholic lawyers, as well as other non-WASPs.
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison[22]
- Proskauer Rose[23] [24] [25] [26]
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom [27] [28]
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges [29] [30]
[edit] Consulting firms
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ William Safire, No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine, 2003
- ^ HRO Today: Same Difference
- ^ Goldman Sachs Buys Share of Parking Garage Firm
- ^ Surowiecki, James (1998-06-15). White-Shoe Shuffle. New York. New York Media LLC. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Timmons, Heather; Christopher Palmieri (2002-01-21). The Perils of J.P. Morgan. BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ The New york Times: They're All Paying Customers to Wall Street
- ^ New York Post: LEHMAN'S $4B PUTS SHORTS IN THEIR PLACE
- ^ Merrill Reportedly Readies Tribal Bond Deal: Firm Is Crossing the T's on the Red Herring for Seminole Issue, Said Sources
- ^ Morgan Stanley's 'white shoe' dissidents continue war of attrition
- ^ The Law Firm's New Clothes - New York Times
- ^ Does the Future Belong to Cadwalader?
- ^ SHOES ARE WHITER THAN MOST IN CITY
- ^ BrandweekNRX: Covington & Burling, a Pfizer law firm, caught cleaning up its reputation on Wikipedia
- ^ Are Two Venerated D.C. Law Firms Destined for a Slow Fade?
- ^ Forbes.com: Dimon Woos Mergers Lawyer Hersch To JPMorgan
- ^ Stephen Labaton, 'Rainmaker: Mario Baeza of Debevoise,' The New York Times September 24, 1989
- ^ Businessweek: Commentary: Et Tu, Enron Lawyers?
- ^ Vault.com: Shearman & Sterling, 1999 Edition
- ^ Vault.com: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- ^ Anna Schneider-Mayerson, Associate Gets Crushed Beneath White Shoe, New York Observer, Feb. 18, 2007
- ^ [1]
- ^ Gay Couple Sues Landlord for Discrimination
- ^ Business - Minding your MANNERS 06/09/02
- ^ lawjobs.com Career Center - Can the 'Jewish Law Firm' Success Story Be Duplicated?
- ^ Why Work for Proskauer Rose LLP? - a service from Vault.com
- ^ Mta Pays Big Shots To Fight A Strike
- ^ "Milestones in an Ambitous Career", New York Times, March 10, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/10/us/20080310_SPITZER_FEATURE.html#
- ^ "Girl Trouble", New York Magazine, October 16, 2000 http://nymag.com/nymetro/nightlife/singles/features/3938/
- ^ Lisa Belkin, Who’s Cuddly Now? Law Firms, New York Times, January 24, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/fashion/24WORK.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
- ^ Greg Sargent, "The Ricochet", Mother Jones, September/October 2005, http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/09/the_ricochet-3.html
- ^ Inside McKinsey: Enron isn't its only client to melt down. Suddenly, times are trying for the world's most prestigious consultant
