Data
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom: 1,424 lawyers, 22 offices; executive partner: Robert Sheehan. New York base associate pay: $140,000 (£95,890).
History
Joseph Flom was the firm’s first associate and joined in 1948. According to legend the firm could not afford to pay him when he started and had a pinochle game (a card game) every Friday
afternoon and gave Flom the pot. Flom made partner in 1954. Today, most partners hold Flom (who is still with the firm) in the highest esteem, and many call him a genius – at the very least the best lawyer of his generation.
Skaddens first made its name in M&A. The firm was involved in some of the biggest mergers of the 1980s, helping to construct elaborate support structures of revolving credit and junk bonds. In 1990 M&A represented one quarter of the firm’s revenue and the ensuing slump in that area hit Skaddens like a ton of bricks and it lost 10 partners. But practices such as project finance and bankruptcy thrived and by 1994 the firm had rebounded.
