Weil, Gotshal & Manges


Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is an American international law firm with over 1,000 attorneys, headquartered in New York City. With a gross annual revenue in excess of $1.1 billion, it is among the world's largest law firms according to The American Lawyer's AmLaw 100 survey.

Overview

The firm was founded in New York City in 1931 by Frank Weil, Sylvan Gotshal, and Horace Manges. Since 1968, Weil has been headquartered in the General Motors building, overlooking Central Park, in New York City's Manhattan borough.
After its founding in 1931, the firm grew steadily in the following decades, taking on clients including General Electric and General Motors, and becoming one of the largest law firms in the country. In 1975, the firm opened an office in Washington, D.C., its first outside New York City, followed in the 1980s by locations in Miami, Houston and Dallas. In 1991, the year that the internet became publicly available, Weil was the first global, non-California law firm to open a Silicon Valley office, in Redwood Shores, California. Later, the firm further spread its practice, notably in non-contentious finance and private equity practice.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent move by Central and Eastern European countries toward market-based economies prompted the firm to launch its international expansion. It established offices in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw in the early 1990s, followed by the establishment of offices in Frankfurt, London, Munich and Paris. In the 21st century, the firm established offices in Beijing, Dubai, 29/F, Alexandra House, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. one-quarter of the firm's lawyers practiced outside the U.S.

Notable cases