Mayer Brown is a distinctively global law firm, uniquely positioned to advise the world’s leading companies and financial institutions on their most complex deals and disputes.
With extensive reach across four continents, we are the only integrated law firm in the world with approximately 200 lawyers in each of the world’s three largest financial centers—New York, London and Hong Kong—the backbone of the global economy.
We have deep experience in high-stakes litigation and complex transactions across industry sectors, including our signature strength, the global financial services industry.
Our diverse teams of lawyers are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.
Our “one-firm” culture—seamless and integrated across all practices and regions—ensures that our clients receive the best of our knowledge and experience.
Attesting to the strength of Mayer Brown’s various capabilities, the firm’s accomplishments are frequently reported by respected business and trade publications. Examples of such coverage include the following:
- In June 2019, Mayer Brown advised BidFair USA and art collector Patrick Drahi in the acquisition of famed auction house Sotheby’s for $3.7 billion.
- In a major win for businesses, the US Supreme Court in April 2019 ruled in favor of Mayer Brown’s client by putting tighter limits on class-wide arbitrations, making it easier for businesses to avoid claims by groups of employees or consumers.
- Mayer Brown won the first decision in New York to apply the newly enacted Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), an amendment to the US Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) that provides for secondary liability under certain circumstances. In July 2018, a judge ruled against the plaintiffs, emphasizing the need to carefully examine JASTA’s required elements in cases involving claims against international banks.
- In August 2018, Mayer Brown represented The Hartford Financial Services Group in connection with its deal to acquire The Navigators Group for approximately $2.1 billion.
- Mayer Brown’s patent litigators secured major victories in July 2018 for Maxell Holdings, a Japanese company that manufactures consumer electronics. One of the victories was a rare win in the Eastern District of Texas in a patent infringement case against ZTE USA, over seven patents directed towards smartphone and tablet technology, including navigation, power management, audio and camera features.
Diversity and Inclusion
Inclusion requires opportunity. Mayer Brown strives to foster a workplace environment that welcomes, respects and embraces differences and in which every lawyer has an equal opportunity to succeed and reach his or her full potential. We continue to seek and promote innovative and effective ways to increase the number of diverse students interested in law school and to recruit diverse law students and lateral lawyers. Our ethnically diverse, women and LGBTQ lawyers are deeply involved in our recruiting efforts as interviewers and Recruiting Committee members.
We also ensure that all of our associates receive challenging work assignments and the necessary career guidance to reach their full potential as practicing lawyers. Our efforts take on many forms, including national and local office diversity programs. These programs provide our diverse lawyers with additional opportunities to interact with the firm’s senior management and practice leaders, network with other diverse lawyers, enhance professional and business development skills, influence firm policy, and obtain guidance and mentoring on the path to partnership.
In 2019, we are particularly proud to have received for the ninth consecutive year, a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality. The firm has also been recognized by Equality Illinois for our commitment to LGBTQ inclusivity in the organization’s annual “Raising the Bar” report for the sixth consecutive year. Furthermore, the firm was among only 7 law firms recognized by Profiles in Diversity Journal in 2016 as a Diversity Leader, an award that recognizes excellence for outstanding standards that align diversity initiatives with business goals. Additionally, for the past three years, Mayer Brown has been named a Top Performer by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). This designation is given to a select group of corporations and law firms that have committed the most time and energy to LCLD programs.
Pro Bono
Mayer Brown is a leader in developing innovative approaches to pro bono work and we strive to pioneer projects that will have a substantial local and global impact.
The firm strongly encourages every lawyer to participate in the pro bono program and provides credit for the hours they contribute. We have a pro bono department dedicated to managing the firm’s pro bono program and ensuring that our lawyers get the support they need to become involved in pro bono work.
The guiding purpose of our program is to use the resources of one of the world’s largest law firms to attack systemic problems. Through our pro bono program, we not only help individuals rebuild and restore their lives, we help foster the industries and organizations that address the underlying issues and challenges those individuals face.
Pro bono efforts of note include a social finance initiative that has counted among its clients BRAC, the Grameen Foundation, ACCION, FINCA International and Root Capital; representing the plaintiffs in the Benisick v. Lamone (Maryland) and Gill v. Whitford (Wisconsin) gerrymandering cases; obtaining a temporary restraining order from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against the January 2017 travel ban executive order; representing parents separated from their children at the border; extensive involvement in LGBTI equality issues; assistance to veterans; and continued work in the area of refugees, asylum and immigration. The firm also has a significant pro bono appellate and Supreme Court practice. Through our Seventh Circuit Project, we have handled more than 170 cases in the areas of prisoners’ rights, habeas corpus and immigration. In addition, the firm has global initiatives in the areas of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, International Human Rights, Transparency and Good Governance, and Economic Development.