The story
Founded by Eli Whitney Debevoise and William Stevenson in 1931.1
History
The firm was founded in 1931 by Eli Whitney Debevoise, a descendant of Eli Whitney, and William E. Stevenson, a gold medalist in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Both men previously worked together at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Francis T. P. Plimpton soon joined the firm's masthead in 1933. In 1936, Robert G. Page joined the firm, which was then known as Debevoise, Stevenson, Plimpton & Page. The firm later became Debevoise, Plimpton & McLean after the addition of Edward C. McLean. By the 1970s, the firm was named Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates after partners Marvin Lyons and Samuel E. Gates. The firm's name was eventually shortened to Debevoise & Plimpton in the 1980s.
Debevoise rose to prominence as counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings of Ivar Kreuger's business empire in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the firm defended Alger Hiss, a U.S. government official controversially accused of espionage, in two highly publicized perjury trials. Soon after, the firm represented Ford Motor Co. in its transition to a public corporation.
Debevoise's reputation grew with the success of its partners outside of the firm. Page became president of Phelps Dodge in 1947. Eli Whitney Debevoise, who remained the firm's presiding partner until 1972, also served as the Allied Commission's Deputy United States High Commissioner for Germany from 1951 to 1953. Stevenson was president of Oberlin College from 1946 to 1960, and later President John F. Kennedy appointed him as the Ambassador to the Philippines in 1961. President Kennedy also appointed Plimpton as the deputy United States Representative to the United Nations, a role he held from 1961 to 1966. McLean served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1962 until his death in 1972.
In 2021, the firm assisted the Democratic Party in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Debevoise & Plimpton 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.
In 2023, Debevoise & Plimpton established an internal AI policy committee to oversee the firm's adoption and governance of generative artificial intelligence technologies.
2010s
The firm defended Take-Two Interactive Software, in defense of lawsuit filed by actress Lindsay Lohan, which claimed that Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games was in breach of her image rights when they based its similar Grand Theft Auto V "Lacey Jonas" character on Lohan without her consent. The case was dismissed on September 1, 2016, then dismissed on appeal, on March 29, 2018.
From Wikipedia’s article on Debevoise & Plimpton, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3