King & Spalding LLP
01 April 2007
King & Spalding claims to be the oldest law firm in Atlanta, founded in 1885 by Alexander King and Jack Spalding. Today the firm is home to over 800 attorneys and has expanded to include offices in Houston, New York and Washington, DC. It has had an international dimension since the opening of a London office in 2003. The firm is able to offer clients representation “of a consistently exceptional standard” across the full range of areas and industries, and some of the biggest names in business are among their clients, including Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse First Boston, General Electric, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline and Shell Oil. In total the firm represents over 250 public companies, including more than half of the Fortune 100.
King & Spalding LLP in Who's Who Legal: Georgia
Over half of the firm’s lawyers are based in Atlanta and 45 of them feature in this publication. King & Spalding lawyers appear in 18 chapters – the firm has the greatest number of representatives in three of these. Five lawyers are nominated in Commercial Litigation – more than any other firm. Clients represented in commercial disputes include Miller Brewing, Coca-Cola and KPMG LLP. Two of the partners who appear in this chapter also feature in Product Liability. Chilton Varner is the most nominated product liability lawyer. She currently represents GlaxoSmithKline as national coordinating counsel and is “definitely among the very best, not only in the state but nationally and internationally”. King & Spalding’s quartet of top patent lawyers is also unmatched by competitors in the research.
The firm performed well in the Insolvency, Real Estate and M&A chapters, with “leading star” Michael Egan, in M&A, gaining positive responses for his work on behalf of United Parcel Service, General Electric Company, Sprint Nextel Corporation and Home Depot. Elsewhere in the voting, John Hinchey emerged as an “undisputed leader” in construction law, known for his work for Wal-Mart and Turner Broadcasting System. Overall, the firm impressed for the “immaculate quality of (its) work across the board” and as “home to some of the brightest legal minds in the US”, and was said to offer clients “a service of the very highest quality”.
To see more profiled firms from Georgia, vist the Firm Profiles page in the Georgia Special Report