Across the US, the last decade of the 20th century saw the biggest shake-up of the practice of corporate law in a generation. On Wall Street, the likes of Cravath Swaine & Moore and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz were pushing profitability through the roof, fuelled by the activity of the strongest financial markets in a decade. In California, ‘start-up’ law firms such as Venture Law Group and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian spent the latter part of the decade dismantling the law firm model, and rebuilding it in the image of the new economy. And throughout the decade, a new breed of global law firm – epitomised by the likes of Shearman & Sterling, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, and Latham & Watkins – was emerging to join the UK’s ‘magic circle’ in a new top tier of international firms.
In Chicago, the effects of the mid-1990s boom years were rather less palpable. The city’s economy had always been steadier than those on the coasts, and the extreme heights of profitability and experimental approach to practice management in evidence there were barely seen in the Midwest. “If you look at the fluctuations of the Chicago economy, you will see that the highs are not as high and the lows are not as low as you will see on the coasts,” confirms Charles Mulaney, a corporate partner at Skadden Arps’ Chicago office.
