Cravath, Swaine & Moore

Cravath began in 1819 when Richard M. Blatchford opened his law office in New York City, representing American industrialists as well as entities in the United Kingdom and Europe, such as the Bank of England, from 1826 through the 1873 Bank of England forgeries. In 1854, former college classmates Blatchford and William H. Seward (later Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State) merged their respective law firms, forming Blatchford, Seward & Griswold.

Blatchford served in the New York State Assembly, and as U.S. Minister to the State of the Church. His son, Samuel, later a partner at the firm, served as a federal district court and appeals court judge. Samuel was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1882, serving for 11 years until his death; he was the first person to serve at all three levels of the judiciary. Seward was both Governor and Senator from New York, who supported the 1865 passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, and negotiated the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia in a transaction that his opponents derisively called "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox", though since noted as a "bargain basement deal".

Paul Drennan Cravath joined the firm in 1899 and devised the "Cravath System," combining a distinct method of hiring, training, and compensating lawyers. His name was added to the firm name in 1901 and, in 1944, after a series of name changes, the Cravath, Swaine & Moore name was established and has not been altered since.

The Bar of the City of New York was reorganized in 1916 by partners Paul D. Cravath and William D. Guthrie.

From 1950, Cravath managed the first U.S. IPOs of European companies, and continues to represent EU firms into the 21st century. Cravath has remained a relatively small firm of about 500 lawyers, located primarily in its New York office, with a few dozen in its London office, opened in 1973, and in Washington, DC, opened in 2022. The firm opened a Hong Kong office in 1994, closing it nine years later.

In 2015, Cravath was the victim of what the firm described as a "limited breach" of its computer network, which The New York Times connected to a 2016 court case against three Chinese hackers who had made more than $4 million from insider information about merger deals.

In March 2019, the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library debuted an historical installation illustrating the firm's legal milestones across two centuries, including obtaining patents for both the telegraph and the sewing machine, organizing NBC, and securing equal access to locker rooms for women sports reporters. The same year, Fisk University launched Cravath Scholars to assist high-achieving students from the Nashville, Tennessee college with scholarships and pre-law internships in New York. In 2021, the firm donated $3 million to Fisk from the firm's attorneys' fees for United States v. Jefferson County.