White-shoe firm

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In the United States, a white-shoe firm is a term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have been traditionally associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term is most often used to describe leading old-line law firms and Wall Street financial institutions, as well as accounting firms that are over a century old, typically in New York City and Boston.[1]

Former Wall Street attorney John Oller, author of White Shoe, credits Paul Drennan Cravath with creating the distinct model adopted by virtually all white-shoe law firms, the Cravath System, just after the turn of the 20th century, about 50 years before the phrase white-shoe firm came into use.[2]

Etymology[edit]

Senator J. Hamilton Lewis and attorney Joseph P. Tumulty pictured wearing "white bucks", 1917

The phrase derives from "white bucks", laced suede or buckskin (or Nubuck) derby shoes, usually with a red sole, long popular among the student body of Ivy League colleges.[3] A 1953 Esquire article, describing social strata at Yale University, explained that "White Shoe applies primarily to the socially ambitious and the socially smug types who affect a good deal of worldly sophistication, run, ride and drink in rather small cliques, and look in on the second halves of football games when the weather is good."[4] The Oxford English Dictionary cites the phrase "white-shoe college boys" in the J.D. Salinger novel Franny and Zooey (1957) as the first use of the term:[5] "Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day."[6] It also appears in a 1958 Fortune article by Spencer Klaw, which describes some firms as having "a predilection for young men who are listed in the Social Register. These firms are called 'white-shoe outfits', a term derived from the buckskin shoes that used to be part of the accepted uniform at certain eastern prep schools and colleges."[7]

Usage[edit]

The term originated in Ivy League colleges and originally reflected a stereotype of old-line firms that were populated by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). The term historically had antisemitic connotations, as many of the New York firms known as white-shoe were considered inaccessible to Jewish lawyers until the 1960s.[5][8] The phrase has since lost some of this connotation, but is still defined by Princeton University's WordNet as "denoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative".[9] Most white-shoe firms also excluded Roman Catholics.[10][11][12][13] A 2010 column in The Economist described the term as synonymous with "big, old, east-coast and fairly traditional."[14] In the 21st century, the term is sometimes used in a general sense to refer to firms that are perceived as prestigious or high-quality; it is also sometimes used in a derogatory manner to denote stodginess, elitism, or a lack of diversity.[5]

Examples[edit]

The following U.S. firms are often referred to as being white-shoe firms:

Accountancy[edit]

The current Big Four accounting firms and the former Big Eight auditors from which they merged:

The only former Big Eight firm not merged into one of the Big Four was Arthur Andersen, which went out of business in 2002 after the Enron scandal.

Banking[edit]

Traditional
Modern

Management consultancies[edit]

The Big Three (management consultancies), colloquially known as ‘’‘MBB’’’, consisting of the largest management consulting firms by revenue:

Law[edit]

Traditional
Modern

While the term "white-shoe" historically applied only to those law firms populated by WASPs, usage of the term has since been expanded to other top-rated prestigious firms. Many of these firms were founded as a direct result of the exclusionary tendencies of the original white-shoe firms, which provided limited opportunities for Jewish and Catholic lawyers, as well as other non-WASPs, and include:

Equivalent law firms outside the United States[edit]

Australia
Big Six: In 2012, three of these firms merged with overseas firms, and one other began operating in association with an overseas firm. As a consequence, it has proposed that the term is no longer applicable to the Australian legal profession, displaced by the concept of Global Elite law firms or International Business law firms.[56]
Brazil
Grandes Firmas: Pinheiro Neto Advogados: Mattos Filho Advogados : Machado Meyer Advogados: Tozzini Freire Advogados: Veirano Advogados
Canada
Seven Sisters
China (People's Republic)
Red Circle, coined by The Lawyer magazine in 2014.[57]
Japan
Big Four
South Africa
Big Five
United Kingdom (centered on the City of London)
  • Magic Circle, firms with the largest revenues, the most international work and which generally outperform the rest of the London market on profitability.
  • Silver Circle, the next tier below the Magic Circle (there is no Golden Circle[58]) has firms smaller than those in the Magic Circle, though sometimes with similar level of profits per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer.[59][60][61]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Safire, William (Nov 9, 1997). "On Language; Gimme the Ol' White Shoe". Retrieved Sep 2, 2021 – via NYTimes.com.
  2. ^ Levinson, Marc (20 March 2019). "'White Shoe' Review: Lawyering Up the 20th Century (book review)". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 March 2019.ISBN 9781524743253
  3. ^ Safire, William (November 9, 1997). "On Language; Gimme the Ol' White Shoe". New York Times.
  4. ^ Chensvold, Christian. "Russell Lynes On The Shoe Hierarchy, Esquire 1953". Ivy Style. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b c Chambliss, Elizabeth (2005). "THE SHOE STILL FITS". Legal Affairs. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  6. ^ Chensvold, Christian. "How The White-Shoe Law Firm Got Its Name". Ivy Style. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  7. ^ "New Jersey State Bar Journal". New Jersey State Bar Association. June 25, 1957 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Stelzer, Irwin M. (February 8, 2016). "Remembering the 'White-Shoe Firm'". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  9. ^ "white-shoe". WordNet. Princeton University.
  10. ^ Pulera, Dominic (October 20, 2004). Sharing the Dream: White Males in Multicultural America. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826416438 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ "President Trump's reference to 'paddy wagon' insults Irish Americans like me". The Washington Post. 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  12. ^ "Italian Americans: The Progressive Tradition-Reflections on Gerald Meyer's Presentation at the New Haven Public Library". March 20, 2021.
  13. ^ "Raise a St. Patrick's Day glass to 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the greatest Irish American". Washington Examiner. March 17, 2020.
  14. ^ "Frozen-term watch: "white-shoe"". The Economist. September 3, 2010. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  15. ^ Surowiecki, James (1998-06-15). "White-Shoe Shuffle". New York. New York Media LLC. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  16. ^ Timmons, Heather; Christopher Palmieri (2002-01-21). "The Perils of J.P. Morgan". Bloomberg Businessweek. McGraw-Hill Education. Archived from the original on February 13, 2002. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
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  18. ^ Creswell, Julie; White, Ben (27 September 2008). "Wall Street, R.I.P.: The End of an Era, Even at Goldman". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  19. ^ Kenton, Will. "White Shoe Firm". Investopedia. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  20. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (December 11, 2005). "They're All Paying Customers to Wall Street". The New York Times.
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  22. ^ "2017 Power 100 Law Firm Rankings". Above the Law. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
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  24. ^ Rost, Peter (September 12, 2007). "Covington & Burling, a Pfizer law firm, caught cleaning up its reputation on Wikipedia". BrandweekNRX.
  25. ^ Martinez, Jose (March 3, 2006). "Shoes are whiter than most in city". NY Daily News. New York.
  26. ^ Moyer, Elizabeth (October 26, 2005). "Dimon Woos Mergers Lawyer Hersch To JPMorgan". Forbes.com.
  27. ^ Labaton, Stephen (September 24, 1989). "Rainmaker: Mario Baeza of Debevoise". The New York Times.
  28. ^ Weiss, Gary (March 4, 2002). "Commentary: Et Tu, Enron Lawyers?". Businessweek. Archived from the original on April 16, 2002.
  29. ^ Qualters, Sheri (August 29, 2007). "Humor Helps the Firm Go Video". The National Law Journal.
  30. ^ "Top Law Schols". New York. April 2011.
  31. ^ Nelson, Katie (November 2, 2009). "NY Daily News". New York.
  32. ^ "Chicago Tribune". November 11, 2009.
  33. ^ John Oller (2019). White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century. p. 565. ISBN 9781524743277.
  34. ^ Schneider-Mayerson, Anna (February 18, 2007). "Associate Gets Crushed Beneath White Shoe". New York Observer. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008.
  35. ^ "History of White & Case LLP – FundingUniverse". Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  36. ^ Morgan, Spencer (April 7, 2009). "Andy Spade Is a Giant in New York". New York Observer. Archived from the original on April 10, 2009.
  37. ^ van der Pool, Lisa (July 1, 2011). "Bill Lee: Still making his case". Boston Business Journal.
  38. ^ Hawkins, Asher (June 28, 2010). "SEC's Revolving Door Often Spins More Than Once". Forbes.
  39. ^ "Caroline Ellison Hires SEC's Former Top Crypto Cop for FTX probe". 10 December 2022 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  40. ^ Tau, Bryon (July 21, 2014). "Akin Gump now largest lobbying firm". POLITICO. Washington.
  41. ^ Gendar, Alison (September 14, 2009). "Straight-shooter judge could break up Junior Gotti's perfect game". NY Daily News. New York.
  42. ^ Rubinstein, Dana (July 24, 2008). "It's Complicated: Insurance Firm Spills Space Gobbled by Former UBS President, Cleary Gottlieb". New York Observer. Archived from the original on August 4, 2008.
  43. ^ Gray, Geoffrey (December 15, 2003). "Charity Busters". City Limits.
  44. ^ Gertner, Jon (January 15, 2006). "What Is a Living Wage?". New York Times.
  45. ^ Stull, Elizabeth (May 23, 2007). "Gay Couple Sues Landlord for Discrimination". Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
  46. ^ "Business - Minding your MANNERS". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. June 9, 2002.
  47. ^ Lin, Anthony (May 16, 2006). "Can the 'Jewish Law Firm' Success Story Be Duplicated?". New York Law Journal.
  48. ^ Donohue, Pete (December 11, 2005). "MTA Pays Big Shots To Fight A Strike". NY Daily News. New York.
  49. ^ ANN W., ANN W. (September 24, 2000). "He May Have Played a Lawyer on TV, but Nanny Produced the Brief". LA Times.
  50. ^ Mainland, Alexis; Goodman, J. David; Iaboni, Lisa; Vega, Tanzina; Dance, Gabriel; Han, Rebecca (March 10, 2008). "Milestones in an Ambitious Career: 1992". New York Times.
  51. ^ "Girl Trouble". New York Magazine. October 16, 2000.
  52. ^ Weiss, Debra Cassens (August 19, 2009). "Wachtell Nabs Top Spot Again In Prestige Rankings". ABA Journal.
  53. ^ Belkin, Lisa (January 24, 2008). "Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms". New York Times.
  54. ^ Sargent, Greg (September–October 2005). "The Ricochet". Mother Jones.
  55. ^ Fitzgerald, Patrick (March 13, 2009). "SunCal Lawyer Whacks Weil". Wall Street Journal.
  56. ^ Beaton Research & Consulting (2012). An obituary for the term "Big 6" law firms in Australia Archived 2012-11-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  57. ^ "Elite 'red circle' firms Zhong Lun and Jun He plot merger as consolidation grips China legal market | The Lawyer | Legal News and Jobs | Advancing the business of law". www.thelawyer.com. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  58. ^ "The silver circle". Chambers Student Guide.
  59. ^ "Ashurst, Herbies ride out tough year; BLP, Macfarlanes, SJ Berwin succumb". The Lawyer. 14 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  60. ^ "Silver Circle". The Lawyer. 3 September 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  61. ^ Fletcher, Martin (28 August 2005). "'Silver circle' firms upset the legal order". The Times. London. Retrieved 25 October 2010.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]