Winston & Strawn LLP
01 October 2006
Winston & Strawn LLP is one of the most respected firms in Illinois and attracted admiring comment throughout our research; one interviewee described the firm as “great to do business with, they offer workable and inventive solutions and have quality right through the ranks”, and this was typical of the responses we received. With 25 listings the firm is the fourth most heavily represented in the following pages, and its presence in 14 separate chapters is similarly impressive.
Winston & Strawn LLP in Who's Who Legal: Illinois
The firm has been part of the Chicago legal scene for over 150 years, since its founding by Fredrick Hampden Winston in 1853. By the time of its 100th anniversary the firm had grown to 40 lawyers, and the next 50 years saw exponential growth. Now numbering nearly 900 lawyers, the firm has merged with firms in New York, DC and California in recent years and now has nine offices worldwide, with a presence on both coasts of the United States as well as in Geneva, London, Moscow and Paris.
The firm performed well across a range of areas, with a strong presence in corporate and commercial areas of law, as well as leading figures in areas such as aviation, environment and labour and employment law. In the latter, the former national head of the firm’s labour and employment relations practice group and current managing partner of the Chicago office, Columbus Gangemi is one of the most highly rated experts in the state, and was described as a “natural leader” in the research.
Winston & Strawn is “the first firm you would call” for white-collar crime work, and is home to most highly rated expert in the chapter covering business crime. Dan Webb was described as the “greatest trial lawyer ever” and “a national leader” by interviewees, and was nationally recognised for his work as lead trial counsel for clients that include Verizon Directories Corporation and the pharmaceutical company Wyeth.
Webb is also among the most highly regarded commercial litigators in the state, and he appears in that chapter alongside the similarly well-regarded Kimball Anderson. The firm seems to specialise in partners who are considered to be outstanding in more than one area of law; in addition to Webb, Anderson is also among the leading commercial arbitrators in the state and Robert Wall is one of an elite group of five lawyers to feature in three chapters. “One of the biggest names in town for corporate work”, he was praised for his work in M&A, capital markets and capital markets law.
In addition, the firm is also as one of the premier commercial banking practices in the city with three featured experts and clients such as ABN AMRO/LaSalle Bank, Madison Capital Funding, Wells Fargo Retail Finance, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, and has also a presence among the top firms for private funds work.
To see more profiled firms from Illinois, vist the Firm Profiles page in the Illinois Special Report