One of New York’s oldest law firms, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, has anointed new leadership for the first time in more than a decade, teaming litigator Robert Giuffra and corporate lawyer Scott Miller together as co-chairs.
The two take over at a time when many large law firms are thriving, even as some sectors of the economy struggle to recover from the continuing pandemic. Sullivan & Cromwell, whose clients include AT&T Inc., Volkswagen AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., saw revenue and profits rise by a double-digit percentage in 2021, its new leaders said. In 2020, the firm brought in $1.56 billion in revenue and its partners earned $5.2 million on average, according to the American Lawyer magazine.
The appointment of Mr. Giuffra and Mr. Miller represents the first time the firm has split its top leadership role. As law firms become larger and more complex, dividing the work became something of a necessity so each can continue to practice law, said Mr. Giuffra, who is also the first litigator to lead the firm since its founding in the late 1800s.
The firm’s prior chairman, Joseph Shenker, served in the role since 2010, taking over at the time from legendary banking lawyer H. Rodgin Cohen.
Guiding the 900-lawyer firm through the rest of the coronavirus pandemic will be one of the pair’s first challenges, Mr. Miller said. The firm has seen more lawyers return to the office this year than many of its peers, he said, helped in part by Sullivan & Cromwell owning its building in lower Manhattan, which gives it more real estate to use to space people out.
Law firms have traditionally stressed the importance of working side-by-side as the best way to train the next generation. Mr. Miller said he is focused on “how you instill a culture while allowing people a little bit of freedom to work in a nonoffice environment at least some of the time.”
About two-thirds of S&C’s lawyers are in New York, with the rest spread in a dozen other offices in the U.S. and around the world, including in China, Germany, England and Australia. More than half its clients are based outside the U.S.
“We’re not much for some of the fads you see in the legal market, people suddenly changing things year to year,” said Mr. Giuffra, who represents companies including UBS, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Volkswagen, which he represented in its diesel-emissions scandal. Like most partners at the firm, he was promoted from within, having joined Sullivan & Cromwell in 1989 after clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
Mr. Miller is an international corporate lawyer who has been with the firm since 1986. He has done extensive deal work for Fiat Chrysler, including representing the car maker in its merger with Peugeot-maker PSA Group, and other recent deal work for Dish Network Corp. and DraftKings Inc.
Write to Sara Randazzo at [email protected]
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