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Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray LLP is an American multinational law firm with 14 offices located in the United States, Asia and Europe. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers and professionals worldwide; its clients include corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and health care organizations. It was founded in 1865 in Boston by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray.

Headquarters

Prudential Tower
Boston, Massachusetts
United States

14

~1,500

  • Private equity
  • Asset management
  • Health care & life sciences
  • Finance & Special Situations
  • Mergers & acquisitions
  • Litigation

  • Julie Jones
  • (Chair)
  • David Djaha
  • (Managing Partner)
  • Akhil Sethi
  • (Chief Operating Officer)
[1]

$2.718 billion (2022)[2]

1865

John Codman Ropes
John Chipman Gray

Limited liability partnership

ropesgray.com

History[edit]

The firm was founded in 1865 by two Harvard Law School graduates, John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray. In 1878, William Loring, also a Harvard graduate joined the firm, and it became "Ropes, Gray and Loring" until Loring's departure in 1899, when he was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.[3][4] During that time, the firm represented the New York and New England Railroad.[3]


In 2003, the firm acquired New York City-based private equity law firm Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard.[5] In 2005, it acquired NYC-based intellectual property law firm Fish & Neave.[6]


In July 2023, Ropes & Gray announced the relocation of some Shanghai-based lawyers to its Hong Kong operation and the launch of an office in Singapore.[7][8]


In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Ropes & Gray was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter stated: "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."[9]

Altimeter Growth Corp. in its merger to take public for $39.6 billion, the largest special-purpose acquisition company merger in history[10][11]

Grab

The acquisition by private equity firms and Bain Capital of Clear Channel Communications, for $26 billion

Thomas H. Lee

Bain Capital's and The Blackstone Group's acquisition of The Weather Channel, in a multibillion-dollar deal

The sale of the Warner Music Group to Access Industries by private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee, for $3.3 billion

Genzyme's acquisition by Sanofi-Aventis, for $20.1 billion

NSTAR's merger with Northeast Utilities, for $7.1 billion

China Everbright's acquisition of Focus Media, for $3.7 billion

TPG Capital's acquisition of J.Crew, for $3 billion

A private equity group's acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts, for $2.4 billion

Berkshire Partners acquisition of Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks, for $2 billion

The Bare Escentuals merger with Shiseido of Japan, a $1.7 billion deal

Bain Capital's acquisition of MYOB, Australia's largest financial software developer;

[12]

Bain Capital's acquisition of Bellsystem24

[13]

TPG Capital and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board's $5.2 billion acquisition of IMS Health Inc., a provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and health care industries

Genzyme Corporation's $2.9 billion deal with Bayer Schering Pharma AG that expanded Genzyme's oncology portfolio by giving the company rights to marketed cancer drugs and control of a program in multiple sclerosis. The transaction was recognized as a "Deal of Distinction" by the Licensing Executives Society in September 2010

[14]

Bain Capital's 2018 sale by Toshiba Corp. of its semiconductor business to a group that included Apple, Seagate, Kingston, Hoya, Dell Technologies and SK Hynix. The transaction was Asia's largest leveraged buyout and private equity deal ever, and was valued at approximately $18 billion

[15]

Nippon Steel Corporation's 2023 definitive agreement to purchase U.S. Steel for $14 billion.

[16]

Ropes & Gray lawyers have advised on major transactions, including:

Defending physicians’ First Amendment rights in . The case concerned a Florida law banning doctors from inquiring about patients’ gun ownership.[17]

Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida

Representing in its Chapter 11 filing.[18]

Gawker

Leading a 10-month independent investigation for the into sexual abuses by former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar.[19]

U.S. Olympic Committee

Representing (then) co-chairman Gordon Caplan, JD, who was arrested in March 2019 as a parent participant in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. Caplan is represented by firm partners Joshua Levy, co-chairman of global litigation and enforcement practice, and Michael McGovern, co-chairman of government enforcement practice.[20] A guilty plea deal in United States v. Gordon Caplan was filed by United States Attorney Andrew Lelling on March 27, 2019.[21][22] An Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting the case, Leslie Wright, is a Ropes & Gray alumna.[23]

Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Representing Harris Associates in a seminal case for the mutual funds industry. In March 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in , which definitively established the standard governing claims of excessive mutual fund fees under § 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.[24]

Jones v. Harris Associates

Defending former BP engineer Kurt Mix against obstruction of justice charges related to the .[25]

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Ropes & Gray lawyers have litigated high-profile cases, including:

Awards[edit]

The firm received five Law360 “Practice Group of the Year” awards for private equity, fund formation, securitizations, health care and white collar in 2019.[26]

(associate 1974–83; partner, 1983–93), Amtrak executive and Assistant Attorney General of the United States

Eleanor D. Acheson

historian and member of the Adams political family

Henry Adams

historian and member of the Adams political family

Brooks Adams

Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

Michael P. Allen

associate (1984–85), poet and Commissioner of the Social Security Administration

Michael J. Astrue

(partner), activist, academic, former Chief Research Compliance Officer at Harvard University

Mark Barnes

(attorney), blockchain law pioneer

Marta Belcher

(associate, 1994–95), professor at Harvard Law School

Yochai Benkler

(partner, 1986–97), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court

Janis M. Berry

(associate, 2001–06), director of Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Investment Management

William Birdthistle

co-founder of Democracy International

Eric Bjornlund

(associate, 1955–59), chair of New England Electric and director of Avery Dennison

Joan Toland Bok

(associate, 1955–c. 1960s), influential Boston municipal lawyer

John F. Bok

57th Governor of Massachusetts

Robert F. Bradford

(partner), criminal defense attorney known for successful pro bono representation of Martin Tankleff

Stephen L. Braga

Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Levin H. Campbell

member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Allison G. Catheron

Judge of the United States Court of International Trade

Jennifer Choe-Groves

(associate, 2000–03), United States Associate Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice National Security Division

John Demers

(associate, 1972–74), Dean of the Faculty of Law at Harvard University

Robert C. Clark

(associate, 1938–45), U.S. Solicitor General and special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal

Archibald Cox

(associate), Associate Justic eof the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Bessie Dewar

(associate, 1895–97), lawyer and historian

Lee M. Friedman

(founding partner), property law scholar and half-brother of Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray

John Chipman Gray

(associate), acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation

Rebecca Haffajee

general manager of the DC Water and Sewer Authority

George S. Hawkins

59th Governor of Maine

Horace Hildreth

(associate, 1919–21), Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court

Olin M. Jeffords

(named partner), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Harvard Law School professor, and general counsel of the New York and New England Railroad

William Loring

(associate, 2001–04), United States Attorney for the District of Vermont

Nikolas P. Kerest

(associate, 2012–22), member of the 2004 United States Olympic rowing team

Isabelle Kinsolving

(associate), general counsel of Affiliated Managers Group and candidate for United States Senate in 2018

John Kingston III

commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Cheryl LaFleur

(partner), United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts

Joshua S. Levy

(associate, 1875–80), United States Senator from Massachusetts

Henry Cabot Lodge

decorated veteran of World War II and brigadier general in the United States Army

Frederick Charles Lough

(associate), chairman of the Massachusetts Republican state committee and Collector of the Port of Boston

George H. Lyman

(chairman, 2004–19), sole trustee of Mitt Romney’s blind trusts during his tenure as Governor and two presidential campaigns.

R. Bradford Malt

(partner), First Lady of Massachusetts (2007–15)

Diane Bemus Patrick

(associate, 2001–02), president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

John Palfrey

(associate, 1949–53, 1955–57; partner, 1961–65), U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1970–73), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1973), U.S. Attorney General (1973), U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1975–76), and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1976–77)

Elliot Richardson

(1911–1970s; hiring partner), Republican National Committeeman from Massachusetts (1932–36)

John Richardson

(founding partner), military historian

John Codman Ropes

dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law

Theodore Ruger

member of the Maine Senate

Heather Sanborn

member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, member of the Boston City Council and philanthropist

Henry Lee Shattuck

comic book writer for Marvel Comics

Charles Soule

(associate, 1986–1989), president of Bates College

Clayton Spencer

author

David O. Stewart

(associate) Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Christopher Taylor

(associate, 1990–93), United States Attorney for the District of Colorado

Robert Troyer

(associate, 1954–60; partner, 1960–62), Dean of the Faculty of Law of Harvard University

James Vorenberg

(partner), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Dalila Argaez Wendlandt

(partner), member of the MIT Blackjack Team fictionalized in Bringing Down the House and 21

Jane Willis

(partner), candidate for New York Attorney General in 2018

Keith Wofford

(associate) United States Senator and United States Representative from New Hampshire

Louis C. Wyman

List of largest United States-based law firms by profits per partner

White-shoe firms

Official website

2011 American Lawyer A-List