Debevoise & Plimpton

Founded in 1931, Debevoise & Plimpton is a quintessential white-shoe New York law firm. The firm consistently ranks among the Top 10 of The American Lawyer’s A-List and is the only firm to have appeared on the list every year since its inception in 2003. With a network of ten offices worldwide, the firm serves high-profile clients in transactions and disputes across both established and emerging markets. Since its opening in 1989, the London office – Debevoise’s second-largest – has developed remarkable expertise in the firm’s core practice areas, including private equity, insurance, international disputes and investigations, arbitration, and finance. While the London office may have experienced some uncertainties in revenue growth in recent years (a 6% decrease in 2022 and a modest 1.4% increase in 2021 during an otherwise boom year for corporate law firms), its overall growth trajectory remains robust. Over the five years from 2017 to 2022, the office achieved an impressive revenue growth of approximately 45%. According to the Global Arbitration Review, Debevoise & Plimpton is one of a select few law firms globally to combine sophisticated international arbitration, general commercial dispute resolution and public international law capacity in four major international arbitration centres: New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris. The practice is led by prominent thought leaders in arbitration and the wider international law community – including Catherine Amirfar in New York, past president of the American Society of International Law, and former UK attorney general Lord Goldsmith KC in London. In London, Debevoise is consistently mandated to act in high-stakes investor-state disputes and large-scale commercial arbitrations in sectors like private funds, insurance, and healthcare. A standout case in 2024 sees the firm representing Azerbaijan in landmark public international law cases against Armenia stemming from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These include the first-ever inter-state arbitration under the Bern Convention on conservation of wildlife and natural habitats and the first known inter-state arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty. The firm also acted in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, where Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of breaching a convention against racial discrimination. Debevoise & Plimpton also offers a one-stop-shop for premium legal services to private equity managers, excelling across fund formation and management (Band 2, Legal 500), fund finance (Band 1), acquisition finance (Band 4), and high-value private equity transactions (Band 5). For example, the firm advised Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) on the formation of CD&R Fund XII, a $26 billion fund and CD&R’s largest fund to date, while also supporting the fund in its deployment of investor capital through the acquisition of Presidio, a leading technology services and solutions provider. In addition, Debevoise & Plimpton London’s private equity client base spans industry heavyweights like KKR and HarbourVest as well as smaller, niche players such as Adenia Capital, which targets growth opportunities in Africa, and LeapFrog, which targets high-impact healthcare and financial services companies in global growth markets. In response to the challenging exit environment of 2022-2024, the Debevoise & Plimpton London private funds team has expanded its expertise in secondaries (funds established to acquire existing private equity-owned assets from other managers), advising LGT Capital Partners on the $3 billion final close of Crown Secondaries Special Opportunities III and Glendower Capital on the $5.8 billion formation of Glendower Capital Secondary Opportunities Fund V. Commitment to pro bono is at the heart of Debevoise's culture, with over 10,000 hours of pro bono work completed in 2022. Trainees can be engaged on a wide range of projects, including the Windrush Legal Initiative, which supports those impacted by the Windrush scandal to apply for compensation, and the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance, which represents survivors of domestic abuse. There are also opportunities to be involved in campaigns and advocacy work for global human rights organisations, such as the Centre for Reproductive Rights and the Human Dignity Trust.