Proskauer Rose
Proskauer Rose LLP (formerly known as Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, LLP) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Proskauer was founded in 1875 and currently employs more than 800 attorneys in eleven offices worldwide.
Headquarters
11
800+
Full service law firm
Timothy W. Mungovan, Firm Chairman
$1,230,482,000 USD (2023)
1875
William R. Rose
Proskauer is known for its litigation, labor & employment, corporate, private equity, private investment funds, finance, and intellectual property law departments. Proskauer has long been the primary outside law firm for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL).
Practice overview[edit]
Proskauer is a full-service law firm, practicing in areas including corporate finance, private investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions, bankruptcy and reorganizations, taxation, litigation, trusts and estates, intellectual property, and labor and employment law. Its clients include participants in many industries, including chemicals, entertainment, financial services, health care, hospitality, information technology, insurance, internet, manufacturing, media and communications, pharmaceuticals, real estate investment, sports, and transportation.
Proskauer is known for its sports law work, with clients including all four of the major sports leagues in the US and Canada (MLB, the NFL, the NHL, and the NBA).[1] In December 2006, The Legal U.S. 500's annual ranking of the top law firms for corporate work singled Proskauer out for excellence in private equity, international M&A, high-yield debt and hedge fund formation.[2]
History[edit]
Throughout its history, the firm's headquarters has been located in the area of Times Square, in midtown Manhattan, where it grew from fewer than a dozen lawyers originally to nearly 800. A full-service practice, it is currently among the ten largest law firms in New York City.
William R. Rose started the firm that is now Proskauer when, at 21 years of age, he opened a law firm on Broadway in Downtown Manhattan in 1875.[3] In 1907, Rose promoted associate Benjamin Paskus to partner and renamed the firm Rose & Paskus.[3] Rose & Paskus was one of the first firms to develop a specialized tax practice after the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913.[3] In 1930, Judge Joseph M. Proskauer resigned his position on New York's Appellate Division to join the firm, which was then renamed Proskauer, Rose & Paskus.[3] The firm shortened its name to Proskauer Rose in 1997.[4]
Proskauer is not known as a traditional "white shoe" law firm, though over the past quarter-century it has gained the reputation as one of the "new white shoe" law firms.[5] Thus it cannot rely on long-standing ties to old money or big investment banks. Rather, the firm has historically focused its practice on labor and employment law, as well as building up significant litigation, private capital, health care, sports and entertainment, bankruptcy, and taxation practices.[4]
Pro bono[edit]
In 2012, Proskauer argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling that the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA), which reduced the disparity in federal sentencing between crack and powder cocaine offenses, applies to defendants who were sentenced after its passage even though their offenses pre-dated the law. The firm is also noted for hosting an Election Protection call center during every election cycle since the 2012 Presidential election.[8]
In 2010, Proskauer received the Law Firm Pro Bono Award at the William O. Douglas Award Dinner in Los Angeles, sponsored by Public Counsel, the United States' largest pro bono public interest law firm.[9]
In 2019, Proskauer was named to The National Law Journal's "Pro Bono Hot List."[10]
Ranking and awards[edit]
According to a study by Yale Law Women (co-sponsored by women's law groups at Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley, Northwestern, and Virginia), Proskauer Rose ranked second in their list of top ten family-friendly firms of 2007.[11]
In 2007, Proskauer Rose was named among the top United States firms practicing corporate and finance law in The Legal 500 US Volume I: Corporate & Finance, a ranking of the "best of the best" U.S. law firms. Proskauer was named a leader in the following categories: Private Equity; International Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Markets; Investment Funds - Alternative/Hedge Fund Formation.[12]
In 2008, Proskauer was named the fastest-growing law firm for the third consecutive year in Boston Business Journal's annual ranking of the area's 100 largest law firms. With the addition of 25 lawyers since January 2007 - a 30-percent growth rate - the firm is ranked 17th in the year' survey.[13]
Fifteen lawyers from Proskauer Rose were named in Southern California Super Lawyers 2008, an annual guide to the top lawyers in the region (the firm was represented in 10 different practice areas).[14] Selections for Southern California Super Lawyers are based on peer nominations and independent research by the editors of Law & Politics magazine.[14]
Proskauer Rose received the 2003 Special Award of Merit by the New York Women's Bar Association for its contribution to the advancement of women.
In 2022, Proskauer Rose was the winner of the 18th British Private Equity Award and awarded 'Law Firm of the Year for Structuring'.[15]