The story
The firm was founded in 1946, when six partners from Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland left to found a firm, Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly & Cox. One of those partners was Henry Friendly, whose name was removed from the firm's name after he was appointed as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1959, as is customary.
In August 2007, Manhattan federal judge Loretta Preska imposed monetary sanctions on Cleary Gottlieb for improperly trying to dissuade a witness, French-Congolese businessman Medard Mbemba, from testifying in Kensington International Ltd. v. Republic of Congo, in which Kensington, which was trying to collect on a nearly $57 million judgement against Congo and Cleary Gottlieb was representing Congo.
The firm has been more active on large merger and acquisitions deals involving Russian companies under sanctions or restrictions than any other law firm since 2010. Until 2022, the firm advised Russian state-owned energy groups Rosneft and Gazprom.
In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter said "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."
In March 2025, the firm acquired Springbok AI, a legal technology company.
Jeffrey Karpf was elected as managing partner, effective January 2026, succeeding Michael Gerstenzang, who became the firm's senior partner.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4