Marketing

"Marketing" at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Early History

Herb Wachtell, Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz had been contemporaries at New York University School of Law. Ten years after graduation, a variety of circumstances prompted them to reconvene in order to form a new law firm. They opened its doors in 1965. The founders were determined that their firm be an old-fashioned partnership rather than a business. They wanted to avoid hierarchy and to promote a congenial and egalitarian working environment. They also agreed that their firm would not take routine assignments and would not offer a full range of legal services. Rather, it would focus on excelling in a few select areas: corporate law, tax, antitrust, creditors' rights, and litigation.

Operating Principles

It developed a set of operating principles that differentiated it from other corporate law firms:

Case Selection and Innovation

The matter-by-matter policy turned out to be a key competitive advantage. Wachtell Lipton became known as one of the rare firms to which corporations turned when they were in desperate circumstances and their usual legal resources proved inadequate. Wachtell Lipton avoided conflicts of interest arising from ties to long-standing clients, and other law firms could enlist Wachtell Lipton as co-counsel without fearing that it would attempt to displace their relationships with their clients.

Wachtell Lipton attained the founders' goal of avoiding routine legal chores. According to Lipton:

The firm encourages innovations, has been successful in developing many, such as cross-border equity mergers, mortgage-pass-through securities, the poison pill, the state business combination takeover laws, and innovative forms for merger and acquisition transactions.

Staffing and Growth

Wachtell Lipton was committed to deliberate and careful growth, and in 1995, it employed

140 lawyers and about 350 support staff.

It...