Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with over 40 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the largest law firms in the world by total headcount and gross revenue, twelfth largest firm in the UK by revenue, and one of the top 12 by number of countries occupied.[3]
Its largest offices are in Washington, D.C., Leeds, London and Cleveland, each having more than 100 lawyers.[4] The firm serves a diverse base of legal clients ranging from Fortune 100 and FTSE Index 100 corporations to newly emerging companies, private clients and local and national governmental entities.[5] The company lobbies on behalf of the entity of the Saudi government that was directly responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; after the murder, the company continued to represent the entity for years until a pressure campaign led the company to drop the client.[6][7] Due to its lobbying role for Saudi Arabia, multiple members of Congress refused to interact with representatives of the firm.[7]
Squire Patton Boggs is currently among the largest lobbying firms in the world. The lobbying arm, long managed by Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., is currently managed by Edward Newberry and Robert Kapla.
The firm was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1890 as Squire, Sanders & Dempsey by Cleveland attorneys Andrew Squire and James H. Dempsey, and Judge William B. Sanders.
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Until the 1990s, it was primarily an Ohio law firm, with the exception of Washington, DC, and offices in several other US cities and Brussels. It was one of the first US law firms to expand into Eastern Europe in the wake of the Cold War, under the leadership of firm chairman Thomas J. Quigley. It opened several offices in the former Soviet bloc region during the 1990s, taking on a key role in the privatization of state enterprises in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland.[10][11] It subsequently absorbed a number of other legal practices including several Pacific Rim offices of Graham & James and the Florida-based law firm of Steel Hector & Davis.[12] The firm also made overtures toward mergers with Denton Wilde Sapte, Seyfarth Shaw and Bryan Cave under Stanton's leadership.[10]
Hammonds was an international law firm headquartered in Leeds, United Kingdom, with offices in Beijing, Berlin, Birmingham, Bradford, Brussels, Hong Kong, Leeds, Madrid, Manchester, Munich and Paris. Hammonds' origins date back to the founding of a legal practice in Yorkshire in 1887. Although it was a major firm in Yorkshire and the West Midlands region, it did not open a London office until 1991.[10]
In 2000, Hammond Suddards and Birmingham-based Edge Ellison (previously led by Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham) merged, forming Hammond Suddards Edge, at that time the 11th-largest law firm in the UK.[13] The firm's rapid expansion left it £30 million in debt in the early 2000s and led to a downsizing through 2005.[11] The firm was ranked 20th in the UK by turnover in The Lawyer UK 100 2006, with a turnover of £132 million. Throughout 2005-2009, the firm underwent significant restructuring under the stewardship of Managing Partner Peter Crossley. As of 2009, the partnership consisted of approximately 180 partners and more than 1,000 employees. Hammonds converted to a Limited Liability Partnership in May 2008.[14]
Hammonds and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey announced that they were in merger talks in August 2010.[15] The partnerships of both firms voted in favor of a merger in November 2010, and it was completed on January 1, 2011, forming the Squire SandersSwiss association.[16] The merger with Hammonds added offices in Madrid, Berlin, Paris, and Munich to the Squire Sanders network, in addition to significantly boosting its presence in the UK where it previously had only 30 lawyers.[11] London overtook Cleveland as the largest office of the combined firm.[10]
The American Lawyer estimated Squire Sanders to be the 24th largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers[17] and 41st by annual revenue[18] as of 2012.
The firm of Patton Boggs was founded in 1962 by James R. Patton, Jr. and joined soon after by George Blow and Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr. It has "participated in the formation of every major multilateral trade agreement considered by Congress."[19] Boggs joined the firm in 1966 after serving as an economist for the Joint Economic Committee and in the executive office of President Lyndon B. Johnson.[citation needed]
According to OpenSecrets, Patton Boggs was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating US$1.7 million, 67% to Democrats.[20] By comparison, during that same period Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld donated US$2.56 million, 66% to Democrats. Since 1990, Squire Patton Boggs contributed US$14.12 million to federal campaigns, and since 1998 spent US$2.72 million on lobbying.[21]
The 2014 Vault.com survey of more than 18,800 associates ranked Patton Boggs as having the best record for pro bono work in the country,[22] and the firm was among the prestigious white-shoe law firms.[23][24][25]
Patton Boggs underwent layoffs and partner exits in 2013 amid a 12% drop in revenue.[26] In May 2014, Patton Boggs paid $15 million as a settlement to Chevron after it pursued damages against Patton Boggs over a lawsuit involving Chevron and Steven Donziger, which Politico described as symbolizing the firm's "weakness and desperation".[27] Patton Boggs entered merger talks with Squire Sanders in 2014 and the firms announced that they would merge on June 1, 2014 under the name Squire Patton Boggs, adding 330 lawyers to the firm's existing headcount.[28]
Squire Patton Boggs now maintains one of the largest lobbying practices in Washington, D.C., gaining extensively from the merger with Patton Boggs, which was the largest US lobbying firm by revenue between 2003 and 2013.[29][30]
Squire Patton Boggs
[edit]Chart displaying top 25 lobbying firms, (rank for Jan-Jun 2010.) Squire Patton Boggs is on top of the list.
As a result of the merger, Patton Boggs closed its Anchorage, Alaska office, and a number of high-profile attorneys left the firm, including Benjamin Ginsberg and two other prominent Republican lawyers who joined Jones Day, and a number of healthcare-policy lawyers who joined Akin Gump.[31]
The combined firm adopted Squire Sanders' existing merit pay system for partners over Patton Boggs' more traditional "eat what you kill" system.[32] Partner compensation under the merit system ranges from US$300,000 for some non-equity partners to US$3 million for the three most highly compensated partners.[10]
The firm currently posts an abnormally high leverage ratio, with almost eight lawyers to every partner, according to its 2014-end-of-the-year numbers for full-time lawyers. The D.C. offices of Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs recently moved into the same building, previously the long-standing home of legacy Patton Boggs. The combined firm kept separate revenue pools for its two legacy partnerships from the June merger until the end of 2014, but these are now unified.[33]
In 2016, the firm announced a merger with San Francisco-based disputes and compliance boutique Carroll, Burdick & McDonough, adding 50 lawyers in California, China, Hong Kong, and Germany, including a new office near Stuttgart, in Böblingen.[34]
In July 2016, the firm opened an office in Darwin, NT, Australia as part of its Asia-Pacific practice group.
The firm announced that effective 1 January 2017, Fred Nance would become Global Managing Partner of Squire Patton Boggs, U.S. LLP, managing 955 attorneys in 36 offices in 16 countries, including U.S., Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. This incorporates 688 lawyers in the US and the Dominican Republic. Nance has also been named to the firm's six-member executive committee, where he will be the first African-American partner. Nance has had a storied career with Squire, negotiating a pact between the NFL and the city of Cleveland to return the Browns to the city; becoming a finalist for the position of NFL Commissioner in 2005; saving 1,000 and securing 600 more Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) jobs for the city, when the Pentagon said it could no longer afford them; and signing up a young high school basketball player, LeBron James, as a client in 2002.[35]
In January 2022, Michele Connell was appointed co-Global Managing Partner alongside Mr. Nance until January 2023 at which point she assumed the role after a transitionary period.
In December 2017, the firm acquired litigation boutique Yarbrough Law Group in Dallas, enhancing the firm's litigation capabilities and continuing its rapid global expansion in cybersecurity and data privacy law.[36]
In February 2018, the firm opened a new office in Atlanta, Georgia and in 2020 it continued its global expansion, opening an office in Milan, Italy.
Squire Sanders represented The Sugar Association and sugar producers in litigation against the Corn Refiners Association and high fructose corn syrup industry regarding the marketing of HFCS as an alternative to sugar. Patton Boggs advised two of the corn refiners involved in the case, leading to an inadvertent conflict of interest following the firms' merger.[45]
Patton Boggs worked in the mid-1990s for the Guatemalan dictatorship, insisting that Sister Dianna Ortiz, who was tortured and raped by members of a death squad, was actually the "victim to an out-of-control, sadomasochistic lover."[46]
Patton Boggs was sued for damages by Chevron with respect to its activities since Spring 2010 on behalf of Burford Capital and other beneficiaries of a US$18 billion judgment obtained by plaintiffs in Ecuador with respect to environmental and health damages resulting from the actions of Texaco, its subsidiary, in the Lago Agrio oil field. The action against Patton Boggs was part of litigation that had been in progress for at least 20 years in a number of national and international venues and on which Chevron was estimated to spend US$250 million a year.[47] In March 2014, the judge in the case issued a scathing ruling that concluded that the plaintiffs' lawyer had indeed violated the RICO statute. Patton Boggs agreed to a settlement in the Chevron litigation, and two partners involved in the litigation left the firm, shortly prior to its merger with Squire Sanders, although an ethical claim filed against the firm shortly before the merger was left outstanding.[48]
Squire Patton Boggs represents the Central Bank of Venezuela in a Federal court action to prohibit a website, www.dolartoday.com, from publishing a free market exchange rate of the Bolivar Fuerte (BsF "Strong Bolivar") based on what buyers and sellers voluntarily pay at a Colombia border town when trading freely. The dolartoday rate differs by a factor of more than 100 from the official government imposed rate of 6.3. (At which, at the time of this edit, a carton of 30 eggs in Venezuela would in theory cost US$66.66 at the government-imposed price of 420 BsF per carton.)[49]
Squire Patton Boggs represents defendant Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, one of two Venezuelan Defendants charged with violating various sections of Title 21, USC, by conspiring to fly five kilograms and more of cocaine into the United States. The other Defendant is Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas. As was widely reported in the press, Mssrs. Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas are cousins, and they are nephews of Cilia Flores, a former Speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly and current First Lady of Venezuela by virtue of her marriage to Nicolás Maduro Moros, President of Venezuela. Also and at the time of this edit, the international press have widely reported that undercover DEA agents filmed the criminal conspiracy of Mssrs. Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas, and that Haitian and DEA authorities subsequently apprehended them at a hotel in Haiti after traveling by private jet from Caracas. Thereafter, and upon executing a search warrant on the Casa de Campo, La Romana, Dominican Republic home and 135 foot yacht of Mr. Flores De Freitas, authorities confiscated 10 kilograms heroin and a still undetermined amount of cocaine in 54 packages. Weeks later and presumably after further investigation, Campo Flores requested a public defender reportedly because Squire Patton Boggs, in attempting to comply with the Money Laundering Act of 1986 and subsequent case law, was unable to verify the legal -or clean- origin of their two-million dollar up-front retainer to represent Mr. Campo Flores.[50][51]
Squire Patton Boggs represented U.S. Ambassador Peter Romero in the Stanford Financial Group Ponzi scheme case.[52]
in 2016, Squire Patton Boggs signed with Saud al-Qahtani to be paid $100,000 per month, plus expenses, for "legal and strategic policy advice and advocacy on foreign policy and related issues in the U.S. Government".[54]
In February 2021 a White House report into the abduction and murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 implicated "The Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court" - headed at that time by Saud al-Qahtani.[55] After the launch of a campaign by DAWN (the advocacy group founded by Khashoggi) Squire Patton Boggs ended its contract to provide legal services to the "Center" on 17 September 2021.[56]
Squire Patton Boggs were donors to Trump hardliner Paul Gosar, the congressman from Arizona, who tweeted "Fight for Trump!" and "The time is now! Hold the line" to promote the 6 January 2021 rally which led to the violent attempt to overturn the US election results at the Capitol. Squire Patton Boggs did not withdraw funding until six days later, after the New York Times publicised the connection.[57]
The company received the worst grade in a scorecard assessing law firms in terms of their impact on climate change.[58]
In 2022, Trump's Save America political action committee paid Squire Patton Boggs almost $250,000 in legal fees.[59]
In March 2024, Squire Patton Boggs was sued by Dutch company R.D. Project Development for allegedly failing to pay rent on their subleased Moscow offices after opting to cease office operations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[60]
As of December 2019, Squire Patton Boggs has 45 offices in 20 countries on five continents.[61] The combined firm advises a diverse mix of local and cross-border clients, from Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 corporations to emerging companies and from individuals to local and national governments.[62][63]
^Sassounian, Harut. (19 August 2015) "Turkey Pays Former CIA Director and Lobbyists to Misrepresent Attacks on Kurds and ISIS". Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2015. Huffington Post website
US$1.04 billion (2022)[2]
