Kelley Drye

Type:	Partnership
Industry:	Legal
Founded:	1836
Founder(s):	Hiram Barney William Mulligan
Headquarters:	New York
Country:	USA
Employees:	350 lawyers
Website:	www.kelleydrye.com
LinkedIn:	Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Twitter:	@KelleyDrye
Key People
Paul McCurdy, Chairman

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP is one of the oldest international law firm in the United States with 350 practicing lawyers and professionals in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Stamford, Parsippany, and Brussels. Paul McCurdy is the current Chairman of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.

History

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP originated from the Mulligan & Barney law firm which was founded by Hiram Barney and William Mulligan in 1836. The firm started as a collections law firm. When Mulligan died in 1838, William Dwight Waterman partnered with Barney. The law firm became Waterman & Barney. In 1841, William Minott Mitchell became a partner and the firm's name was changed to Barney & Mitchell. Barney's first clients of the company include George Catlin, a famous artist who documented the lives of the Indians through painting and proposed the idea of creating National Parks and Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner. The firm also handled the the Half-Breed Tract land claims and title disputes between the federal government and the Sac and Fox tribes. The firm also helped organize the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 1849 the firm became Barney and Butler when Barney partnered with Benjamin F. Butler and his son William Allen Butler. The firm became Barney, Butler, and Parsons in 1859. Barney retired from the firm in 1873.

After Barney's retirement, the firm evolved from different partnerships. In 1874, William Allen Butler, Thomas E. Stillman and Thomas H. Hubbard became partners and the name of the law firm became Butler, Stillman & Hubbard. In 1880, John Notman, Adrine Joline Wilhelmus Mynderse and William Allen Butler, Jr., became partners in the law firm. When Stillman and Hubbard retired in 1896, they took over the firm and changed its name to Butler, Notman, Joline & Mynderse.

In 1905, the law firm split into two partnership wherein Butler, Notman and Mynderse concentrated legal practice on admiralt industry.On June 5, 1907 Willian J. Wallace, the late presiding justice of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals joined the firm after the deaths of Mynderse and Notman on 1906 and 1907 respectively. The firm was renamed Wallace, Butler and Brown. The other partnership was named Joline, Larkin and Rathbone focused providing legal services corporations and retained some of the clients of its precursor such as the Central Trust Company of New York. The firm helped re-organized different companies including Metropolitan Street Railway and the New York City Railway (1907), Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (1908), St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad and Maxwell Motor Company, Inc. (1913) etc.

Nicholas Kelley joined Larkin, Rathbone & Perry as partner in 1921. The firm was instrumental in reorganizing the Maxwell Motor Company and successfully negotiated a deal with Chase Securities to finance the production of new cars designed by Walter Chrysler. The firm also negotiated the sale of the Chrysler building in New York. Chrysler is still a client of the firm. In 1930, Wilson Drye joined as partner in the company. In 1943 the partnership was named Rathbone, Perry, Kelley & Drye. In 1961, the firm acquired Barr, Robbins & Palmer. In 1975, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP became the permanent name of the law firm.

Growth and Expansion

In 1979, Kelley Drye had 93 lawyers in New York. By 1984, the firm established offices in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo, Washington, D.C.; Morristown, New Jersey; and Stamford and Danbury, Connecticut with 210 lawyers. At present, the firm has more than 350 lawyers and employees in the United States, Belgium and it has also an affiliate Office in Mumbai, India. It provides services in more than 30 legal practice areas.