Arnold & Porter

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm.<ref>Arnold & Porter website</ref> It is a white-shoe firm<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Arnold & Porter was founded in 1946 by Thurman Arnold and Abe Fortas, and was originally known as Arnold & Fortas. Paul Porter joined the firm a year later, completing the trio.

In 2024, Arnold & Porter reported a 5% increase in revenue, reaching $1.19 billion. Profits per equity partner rose to $1.63 million, and revenue per lawyer increased by 6.5% to $1.24 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

History

The original firm was founded as Arnold & Fortas in 1946 by New Deal veterans Thurman Arnold, a former Yale Law School professor and U.S. Court of Appeals judge on the D.C. Circuit, and Abe Fortas, another former Yale Law School professor who later became a Supreme Court Justice.<ref>Chambers Student Guide 2011, Chambers and Partners.</ref> In 1947, Paul A. Porter, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, joined the firm and it was renamed as Arnold, Fortas & Porter. In 1965, Abe Fortas' name was dropped from the firm's moniker after his ascension to the Supreme Court.

In November 2016, Arnold & Porter announced a merger with New York-based firm Kaye Scholer, forming Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, with approximately 1,000 attorneys across 14 offices. The merger took effect on January 1, 2017.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In July 2025, the firm announced the launch of a new office in Seattle, bringing its tally of U.S.- based offices to 11.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In February 2018, The National Law Journal reported that the newly combined "firm has quietly reversed its post-merger branding efforts" and "scrubbed nearly all mention of 'Kaye Scholer' from its public image, changing its brand name, email addresses and web domain", while retaining the legal entity name in full.<ref>"Arnold & Porter Scrubs Kaye Scholer From Masthead, Website", by Ryan Lovelace, The National Law Journal, Law.com, February 02, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2019.</ref> In September 2020, Arnold & Porter announced that it will shut down its Frankfurt office by the end of March 2021.<ref>[1] "Aus in Deutschland - Arnold & Porter schließt Frankfurter Buero"</ref>

In 2022, Arnold & Porter was a founding member of the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of United States law firms offering free legal services to people seeking and providing abortions in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade.<ref name=law>Template:Cite news</ref>

Major cases

In 1963, Abe Fortas of Arnold, Fortas & Porter, was appointed by the Supreme Court to represent Clarence Gideon in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Abe Krash and John Hart Ely worked with Fortas on Gideon. This led to the Supreme Court upholding the right to counsel in felony prosecutions and requiring states to provide counsel to defendants unable to afford their own.

Pro bono work

In 2020, Arnold & Porter attorneys helped secure a $14 million judgment for 12 Black Lives Matter protesters who were victims of police brutality in Colorado.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The matter took 18 months to settle and required 14,000-plus lawyer hours.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Attorneys with the firm assisted the family of Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper in obtaining the first posthumous presidential pardon in U.S. history, and represented Ukrainian mail order bride Nataliya Fox against international marriage broker Encounters International in a landmark case that helped to establish the rights of such women.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The firm is co-counsel with the DC Prisoners' Project of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, which represents prisoners at ADX Florence who allege deficiencies in psychiatric evaluation and care in Cunningham v. Federal Bureau of Prisons.<ref name="NYTM032615">Template:Cite news</ref>