Mayer Brown is a global law firm. It has offices in 27 cities across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, with its largest offices being in Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York City, Hong Kong, and London. Mayer Brown has more than 1,500 lawyers and by revenue is the 19th largest law firm in the world.
History
The three firms that now form the core of Mayer Brown were all founded in the 19th century. The US portion of the firm was founded in 1881 in Chicago, by Adolf Kraus and Levy Mayer, and was shortly thereafter known as Kraus, Mayer & Brackett. After several changes in name to reflect its changing membership the firm eventually became known in the US as Mayer, Brown & Platt. The English portion of the firm, Rowe & Maw, was established in 1895 in London and operated under that name until joining with Mayer, Brown & Platt in 2002 to form Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. In 2007 the amalgamated firm shortened its name to Mayer Brown. Johnson Stokes & Master was formed in 1863 in Hong Kong and is today known as Mayer Brown after merging with Mayer Brown in 2008.
Mayer Brown is a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, which commits the firm to devote 3 percent of total billable time to pro bono work and a member of the UK Joint Protocol on Pro Bono Work, which stipulates that pro bono legal work must be carried out to the same standard as chargeable work.
Recognition
Received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index 2019.
Law360 Firm of the Year 2016-2018 and Practices of the Year for: Appellate, Banking, Class Action, Food & Beverage, Life Sciences, Technology and Transportation.
On Law360's "Global 20" 2018 list of law firms doing the most substantial, complex and diverse global work
34 top-tier national and 80 top-tier metropolitan U.S. News Best Law Firms 2019 rankings
Earned the highest overall scores in client service performance among law firms in the 2019 BTI Client Service 30.
was a New York-based broker of commodities and futures contracts. It filed for one of the biggest bankruptcies in the USA history in 2005, after the evidence for major accounting fraud surfaced. In the wake of collapse, lawsuit was filed against Mayer Brown for aiding Refco executives' theft of more than $2 billion. In November 2012Joseph Collins, a former partner at the Mayer Brown, was found guilty on multiple charges of conspiracy and fraud for his role in preparing Refco's IPO. The law firm itself agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle the legal claims against it.
