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Perkins Coie LLP
Headquarters1201 Third Avenue
Seattle, Washington, US
No. of offices21
No. of attorneys1,000+
Major practice areasGeneral practice
Key peopleBill Malley (managing partner)[1]
RevenueUS$1,163,764,000 (2023)[2]
Date founded1912 (Seattle)
Company typeLLP
Websiteperkinscoie.com

Perkins Coie LLP is a global law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm.[3][4] It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 21[5] offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The firm provides corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including prominent technology companies like Google, Microsoft,[6] Intel, Meta, and Amazon.[7][8] The firm is known for its pro bono work.[9]

History

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The firm has represented the Boeing Company since the founding of the aerospace company in 1916. Perkins Coie has been named one of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 22 consecutive years, recently ranking #23 on the list.[10]

In 2024, Perkins Coie's pro bono team successfully secured a grant of asylum for a former Afghan Air Force Pilot.[11]

The firm was an early representative of fintech and blockchain interests[12] and has one of the largest law firm blockchain and digital currency practices.[13] Perkins Coie also counsels startups and established tech companies.[14] It launched the Perkins Coie Tech Venture index in 2019, which measures the overall health and trajectory of the emerging growth technology and venture capital ecosystem.[15]

In 2018, Perkins Coie joined the American Bar Association's campaign targeting substance-use disorders and mental health issues among lawyers.[16]

In 2019, the firm became a signatory to the Mansfield Rule, which aims to diversify the leadership of large law firms by broadening the candidate pool for senior management positions.[17] Perkins Coie plans to move their Seattle headquarters to the Russell Investments Center in 2025. Previously, they had occupied 1201 Third Avenue since its opening in 1988.[18]

Perkins Coie Beijing Office in September 2024

In March 2024, Perkins Coie announced the closure of its office in Shanghai, China.[19] Later in September, the firm confirmed that it has commenced the process of closing its Beijing office and will shift its strategic focus in China to Shenzhen.[20] However, days later Loeb & Loeb announced that it will take over Perkins Coie IP firm, which was set up in 2019 in Shenzhen, as well as Perkins Coie Beijing team of 17 lawyers.[21]

In May 2024, the firm announced the launch of a London office with a technology-focused corporate practice.[22] The London office is led by corporate lawyer Ian Bagshaw.

Clientele

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Perkins Coie is well-known for advising many of the world’s largest technology companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft as well as large corporations like Boeing, Costco, and Starbucks. The firm has advised[23] Microsoft on its growing partnership with OpenAI, the research and development company behind ChatGPT [2023], guided[24] YouTube TV on its Sunday Ticket broadcast agreement with the National Football League [2022], and represented[25] Amazon before the International Trade Commission with respect to patent litigation [2023/4].[citation needed]

Notable cases

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The firm represented Amazon in its initial public offering in 1997.[26]

The firm represented Christine Gregoire in the prolonged litigation surrounding her 2004 Washington gubernatorial election.[citation needed]

A team of Perkins lawyers successfully represented Al Franken in his recount and legal battle over the 2008 Senatorial election in Minnesota.[27]

In 2006, Perkins Coie, led by partner Harry Schneider, represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the alleged driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in which the Court ruled that the Bush Administration's use of military commissions to try terrorism suspects was unconstitutional.[28]

Perkins Coie worked in the Doe v. Reed case concerning petition signatures in state ballot initiative campaigns, which was argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28, 2010.[29]

In 2010, Perkins Coie sought advisory opinions from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) declaring that certain Google[30] and Facebook[31] advertisements were covered by the "small items" and "impracticable" exemptions of the law that otherwise requires a political advertisement to include a disclaimer revealing who paid for it.[31][32] The commission granted Google's request in a divided vote, and deadlocked on Facebook's request.[32] According to The New York Times, "Facebook nonetheless proceeded as if it was exempt from the disclaimer requirement".[32] In October 2017, Perkins Coie lobbied to defeat a bill called the Honest Ads Act, which would require internet companies to disclose who paid for political ads.[32][33]

Perkins Coie was hired in 2015 as counsel for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.[34] As part of its representation of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Perkins Coie retained the intelligence firm Fusion GPS for opposition research services. Those services began in April 2016 and concluded before the 2016 U.S. presidential election in early November. A notable product of that opposition research was the Steele dossier describing alleged attempts by Russia to promote the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.[35] During the campaign, the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million and $3.6 million respectively.[35] On October 24, 2017, Perkins Coie released Fusion GPS from its client confidentiality obligation.[35] The FEC conducted an investigation into misreported 2016 payments to Perkins Coie and levied a fine of over $100,000, jointly paid by the DNC and the Clinton campaign.[36]

Perkins Coie was retained to conduct the independent investigation into potential sexual abuse by Richard Strauss during the course of his employment with Ohio State University wrestling program.[37] The firm conducted 600 interviews with 520 subjects over the course of a year, an investigation paid for by OSU and expected to cost over $6.2 million by its completion. Of 177 students who personally confirmed abuse by the doctor, and 38 more who confirmed abuse but could not remember which staff person was the perpetrator, according to the university's investigation, 48 were from the wrestling program.[38] Because the report did not specifically mention the failure to address the abuse, or the lack of same, on the part of Republican Congressman Jim Jordan who coached in the programs for eight years while Strauss was there, Jordan claimed he, therefore, had been exonerated by the investigation.[38]

Following the 2020 presidential election, Perkins Coie handled the responses to dozens of lawsuits filed by the Donald Trump campaign, in which Trump sought to overturn Joe Biden's win.[39] Out of 65 such court cases, Perkins Coie prevailed in 64.[40] In 2021, as several Republican-dominated state legislatures passed laws to tighten election procedures and impose stricter voting requirements, Perkins Coie filed suits challenging the new laws, often within hours of the bills being signed.[40]

Notable alumni

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Alumni of the firm include Salesforce President and CFO Amy Weaver; the 16th Lieutenant Governor of Washington Cyrus Habib; former Attorney General of Washington State Rob McKenna; 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Margaret McKeown, Ronald M. Gould, and Eric D. Miller; Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Tiffany Cunningham; Oregon Supreme Court Justice Chris Garrett; and U.S. Representative Colin Allred.[citation needed]

Trump-Russia investigation

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In September 2021, Michael Sussmann, a well-known cybersecurity lawyer at Perkins Coie, was indicted by the John Durham Special Counsel for allegedly making a false statement to the FBI in September 2016.[41][42] Sussmann resigned from Perkins Coie after he was charged by the special counsel.[43] After a jury trial, Sussmann was unanimously acquitted in May 2022.

References

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  1. ^ "Bill Malley - Firm Managing Partner". Perkins Coie. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  2. ^ "Perkins Coie law.com profile". ALMLaw.com.
  3. ^ "The 2020 Am Law 100: At a Glance". The American Lawyer. April 21, 2020.
  4. ^ "Perkins Coie LLP - United States Firm". Best Law Firms. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  5. ^ Booth, Edin Imsirovic|James. "US law firm Perkins Coie eyes London launch". www.fnlondon.com. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  6. ^ MarketScreener (March 9, 2021). "Microsoft Corporation completed the acquisition of ZeniMax Media Inc. from Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. and others for $8.1 billion. - MarketScreener". www.marketscreener.com. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  7. ^ "Firm Overview". Perkins Coie.
  8. ^ "GitHub | Processed takedown notice for XSpotify". GitHub. March 11, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  9. ^ Helem, Lisa (May 1, 2019). "The 2019 Pro Bono Hot List". National Law Journal.
  10. ^ "Perkins Coie". Fortune. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  11. ^ "Perkins Coie Pro Bono Team Secures Asylum for Former Afghan Air Force Pilot". Perkins Coie. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  12. ^ "America's Top Trusted Corporate Law Firms 2019". Forbes.
  13. ^ "FinTech Legal: Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies, USA - Nationwide, FinTech | Chambers Rankings". chambers.com. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  14. ^ Lo, Teresa (February 10, 2017). "Top Go-To Law Firms in Silicon Valley | JDJournal". www.jdjournal.com.
  15. ^ "Perkins Coie Launches the TechVenture Index". March 26, 2019.
  16. ^ "ABA launches pledge campaign to improve mental health and well-being of lawyers". www.americanbar.org.
  17. ^ "Perkins Coie Adopts Mansfield Rule to Boost Leadership Diversity". Perkins Coie.
  18. ^ Miller, Brian (November 20, 2023). "Perkins Coie leaving 1201 Third for half the space on Second Avenue". Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  19. ^ "Fourth BigLaw firm closes office in China". ABA Journal. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  20. ^ Hu, Yangxiaoxiao. "Perkins Coie to Close Beijing Office, Shift Strategic Focus to Shenzhen". Asian Legal Business. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
  21. ^ "Loeb & Loeb takes over Perkins Coie IP firm and Beijing team". China Business Law Journal. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  22. ^ "Perkins Coie Launches London Office, Eyeing Start-Up Tech Market". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  23. ^ https://www.perkinscoie.com/images/content/2/6/v2/265409/Law360-Regional-Powerhouses-Washington-Powerhouse-Perkins-Coie.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ^ https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/covington-perkins-coie-punch-tickets-on-14-billion-nfl-tv-deal. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ "In Year of 'Difficult Decisions,' Perkins Coie Grows Revenue 4% and PEP 7.6%".
  26. ^ "Even during Amazon's IPO process 20 years ago, Jeff Bezos was obsessed with details". finance.yahoo.com. May 14, 2017.
  27. ^ "Overtime: The 2008 U.S. Senate Race, Chapter 3: How Franken's attorneys outmaneuvered Coleman's team to secure the Senate seat". September 18, 2009.
  28. ^ "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld".
  29. ^ "Doe #1, et al. v. Reed, et al". Perkins Coie.
  30. ^ "Letter from Marc Elias to the Federal Elections Commission on behalf of Google (August 5, 2010)" (PDF). Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  31. ^ a b "Letter from Marc Elias to the Federal Election Commission on behalf of Facebook (April 26, 2011)" (PDF). Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  32. ^ a b c d Vogel, Kenneth P.; Kang, Cecilia (October 20, 2017). "Senators Demand Online Ad Disclosures as Tech Lobby Mobilizes". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  33. ^ S. 1989, 115th Cong. (2017).
  34. ^ Haberman, Maggie (March 4, 2015). "Clinton Hires Campaign Lawyer Ahead of Likely Run". The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  35. ^ a b c Entous, Adam; Barrett, Devlin; Helderman, Rosalind S. (October 25, 2017). "Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  36. ^ Montellaro, Zach (March 30, 2022). "Federal campaign watchdog fines DNC, Clinton campaign over dossier spending disclosure". Politico. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  37. ^ "Ohio State University Probe into Allegations Against Physician, Dr. Richard Strauss – Perkins Coie". Perkins Coie.
  38. ^ a b Ohio State team doctor sexually abused 177 students over decades, report finds, Washington Post, May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  39. ^ Tillman, Zoe (December 14, 2021). "Trump And His Allies Have Lost Nearly 60 Election Fights in Court (And Counting)". Buzzfeed. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  40. ^ a b Abramson, Alana (April 6, 2021). "Marc Elias Fought Trump's 2020 Election Lawsuits. Can He Win The Battle Over Voting Rights?". Time. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  41. ^ "USA vs SUSSMANN". September 16, 2021.
  42. ^ Montgomery, Blake (September 16, 2021). "Trump-Appointed Special Counsel Indicts Lawyer at DNC-Associated Firm". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. The alleged lie arises from a meeting between Sussmann and the FBI's top lawyer about irregular data transfers. Durham alleges that Sussmann "lied about the capacity in which he was providing... allegations to the FBI." Sussmann allegedly said he was not meeting with the FBI on behalf of a client but later testified before Congress that he had, in fact, attended on behalf of an anonymous cybersecurity expert.
  43. ^ Cassens Weiss, Debra (September 17, 2021). "Perkins Coie partner resigns from firm after he is charged by special counsel". ABAJournal. Archived from the original on February 22, 2022.
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