Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law and lobbying firm founded in Miami in 1967 by Larry J. Hoffman, Mel Greenberg and Robert H. Traurig. As of 2022, it is the 9th largest law firm in the United States. The firm has 45 locations in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, and approximately 2650 attorneys worldwide.
Their largest office is in New York City, and their clients have included Diane Von Furstenberg Studios, Conde Nast Publications, The New Yorker, New Yorker staff, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the plastics industry.
History
In the 1970s, Greenberg, Traurig and Hoffman became Greenberg, Traurig, Hoffman, Lipoff, and Quentel with the addition of attorneys Norman H. Lipoff and Albert D. Quentel as named shareholders. The late Florida governor Reubin Askew was a named shareholder in the early 1980s while he also sought the Democratic nomination for president.
Larry Hoffman became managing partner of the firm in 1991, at which point the firm began to expand nationwide, beginning with the opening of an office in New York City. Greenberg Traurig expanded to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Wilmington (Delaware) in 1999; in 2000, the firm doubled the size of its New York City office by acquiring the local office of the defunct Graham & James.
In July 2009 Greenberg Traurig opened an office in London under the name of Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP (since renamed to Greenberg Traurig, LLP). The London office is currently located in The Shard skyscraper.
According to OpenSecrets, Greenberg Traurig was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $1.49 million, 50.2% to Democrats. By comparison, during that same period Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld donated $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats, while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans. Since 1990, Greenberg Traurig contributed $11.2 million to federal campaigns.
In 2013 the firm launched a residency program to hire associates who are not recruited in traditional on-campus interviews by allowing them to spend up to a third of their billable hours in training for a one-year trial period.
In 2016, Brian Duffy became CEO. In July 2018, founding member Robert Traurig died at age 93 in Miami, Florida.
Corporate social responsibility
During 2011-2013, Greenberg Traurig participated in the American Bar Association's National Pro Bono Week.
The Greenberg Traurig Holly Skolnick Fellowship Foundation was established in 1999. The Foundation supports Equal Justice Works public interest lawyers. Previously named the Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation, the program was renamed in 2013 in honor of the late Holly Skolnick, a Greenberg Traurig shareholder who helped establish the foundation and served as its president.
In 2020, Greenberg Traurig became the first law firm certified to be net carbon neutral by the Center for Resource Solutions. In October 2022, they were named a Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certified Plus firm, which requires at least 30% of leadership roles and 30% of staffed lawyers come from historically underrepresented groups.
Finances
Awards and rankings
It is the ninth largest law firm in the United States by headcount and ranks in the top 20 of the Am Law 100 by gross revenue, in the top 10 of the NLJ 500, and in the top 25 of the Global 200.
Controversies
In January 2001, lobbyist Jack Abramoff left Preston Gates & Ellis to join Greenberg Traurig. At the firm he assembled "Team Abramoff", a lobbying team that was involved in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and the monetary influence of Jack Abramoff.
In 2001, Victor Reyes, who headed the Hispanic Democratic Organization, joined Greenberg Traurig and led the firm's Chicago lobbying practice. After Reyes's arrival, from 2001 to 2005, Greenberg earned $3.5 million in city-related legal fees, including for representing the city in the United Airlines and RCN Cable TV bankruptcies. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald subsequently alleged that Reyes's law office was central to a patronage scheme to funnel city jobs to pro-Daley campaign workers. Reyes resigned from Greenberg in August 2005 and wasn't charged, but prosecutors called him as a "co-schemer" in the indictment. Greenberg CEO César Álvarez stated, "I don't know about anything [Reyes] did in the firm that was wrong. I can only know what I have seen, and I only know that he hasn't been charged".