From the Chair: Reflections on 2021 and Moving Forward

March 1, 2022 – At Hughes Hubbard, our success has been, and will always be, built around our singular focus on results. We are known for our teamwork – with one another, our clients and with other law firms – and we strike the balance between scale and agility, handling large and complex matters, while remaining flexible to adapt to clients’ needs and market developments. We continued our track record of success and incredible teamwork despite the continued obstacles of an ongoing pandemic. We are not afraid to roll up our sleeves and tackle the impossible, and 2021 was another very successful year for Hughes Hubbard on all fronts.

Our most important metric is the results we achieve for our clients, and by that measure, 2021 was an outstanding year. We achieved important wins, many in extraordinarily complex or new areas of law, including a groundbreaking jury verdict, which press reports described as the first case in the country in which a jury determined whether cryptocurrency-related products constituted “securities” under federal and state law. We also acted as legal advisor to Grab Holdings Inc. in its merger with Altimeter Growth Corp that took Southeast Asia’s leading super app public in what is expected to be the largest SPAC merger ever, and represented United Airlines, Inc. in a $10.75 billion debt financing, the largest debt financing by an airline in history. We also scored a complete arbitration victory for an esports company through a rare pre-hearing success on a Rule 33 dispositive motion, and secured an appellate win in the final claims dispute in the liquidation of Lehman Brothers.

Our clients turn to us for guidance on a broad array of matters, ranging from multi-billion dollar business combinations, SPACs, financings and restructurings to some of the most significant and widely reported investigations, arbitrations and litigations around the world. We act for our clients in distinctive and transformational matters no matter the year, the situation or the obstacle. We have demonstrated the ability to successfully navigate the difficult and ever-evolving business, public health and political climates, even in the midst of a pandemic, and our financial numbers help tell the story of our success.

When looking at financial metrics, we believe revenue per lawyer (RPL) is the most important tracked by The American Lawyer, because we see it as a measure of the health of the whole firm, not just the partnership.

In 2021, our RPL surpassed $1M for the eleventh year in a row, increasing 23% over 2020. Total partner compensation was up 26%, and the firm saw its gross revenue up 12% from 2020. 

We also continued to focus on our core strengths while building resources in areas where we believe we add value. Our ability to focus on our clients’ needs is due in no small part to the deep bench we have built. With that in mind, we are thrilled about the exceptionally talented lawyers we promoted internally and attracted laterally this past year.

In May, we added Charles Wachsstock to our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation group in New York, Monique Figueiredo to the Labor and Employment practice in Paris and Thomas Healey to the Aviation Finance group in Washington, D.C.; in June, Remy Gerbay joined the Arbitration practice in Washington, and the Mergers & Acquisitions group in New York expanded with the addition of corporate partners Scott Naturman and Constantine (Gus) Petropoulos; in October, Christine Kang joined the Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations practice in New York; and in December and this past January, Kenyen Brown and Kevin Carroll joined the White Collar & Regulatory Defense and Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations groups in the Washington, D.C. office.

We also promoted a diverse new class of partners and counsel. The new partners are M. Shams Billah in Banking & Financial Services, Erin Diers in Corporate Reorganization & Bankruptcy and Amina Hassan in Litigation in the New York office, and Marie-Agnès Nicolas in Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations in the Paris office; and our new counsel are Jan Dunin-Wasowicz in Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations in the Paris office, Tyler Grove in International Trade in the Washington, D.C. office, and Malik Havalic in Litigation and Alexander Rahn in Corporate in the New York office. 

We are off to a strong start in 2022 across our platform. Looking ahead, it’s an exciting time as we are actively growing our capabilities in a number of areas that we expect will expand significantly: our world class investigations practice, intellectual property, our China practice, as well as sanctions, aviation, and corporate restructuring.

We are doing excellent work and getting excellent results for our clients, and we do that because we love it. That’s who we are. We are financially sound, and who we are matters to us. We are proud of our team, and our arms are open to those who can see for themselves a role within it.

Ted Mayer 
Chair