Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Overview

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, founded in 1965 and based in New York City, is a leading corporate law firm best known for mergers and acquisitions, corporate counsel work, and high-stakes litigation tied to landmark business matters. The firm is small by BigLaw standards with about 267 attorneys and reported $1,195,550,000 in gross revenue in 2024, placing it 50th on The American Lawyer 2025 Am Law 200 and 59th on the 2024 Global 200 (it ranked 172nd by size on the National Law Journal 2025 NLJ 500). Wachtell Lipton is famed for above-market compensation, a culture of intense professionalism and hard work, and a collegial atmosphere that stems from its deliberate small scale. The firm maintains a single New York office while cultivating a global reach and a reputation as an elite, M&A-focused practice that has intentionally spurned domestic or international expansion.