Kasowitz, Benson & Torres is a New York law firm founded in 1993. It employs 350 lawyers and maintains offices in several states.[3] The firm focuses on product liability litigation, corporate, family and employment law, as well as intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors' rights.[3] The firm's notable clients have included Donald Trump,[4] Robert De Niro, Celanese, ArvinMeritor, Liggett Group, Enron, WorldCom and Mia Farrow.
The firm was founded as Kasowitz, Hoff, Benson & Torres in 1993 when Marc Kasowitz left the Mayer Brown law firm with 18 other lawyers and two clients.[5] David M. Friedman was added as a partner in May 1995,[6] and William Bruce Hoff, Jr. left in November.[7]
The firm began in New York City with 18 lawyers and after 6 months expanded to include a Houston branch office.[3][5] Friedman joined the firm in 1993 or 1994 and opened its bankruptcy practice.[5] In 1996 several new lawyers joined the firm to begin its employment and matrimonial practices.[5] It opened a New Jersey office in 1997, Atlanta in 2001[5] and in 2003 the firm opened a San Francisco office while former assistant district attorney, Leslie Crocker Snyder, joined the office in New York.[8] By 2004 the firm had increased to 160 lawyers and included an additional office in Atlanta.[5] The firm opened its Miami, Florida office in 2006 and expanded its San Francisco, California office in 2007 by merging with the seven lawyer firm, Topel & Goodman.[3] The 2005 launch of the intellectual property arm of the company led to several personnel changes with various key lawyers arriving and departing.[3] This included Peter J. Toren who left the intellectual property department in the spring of 2007.[3]
In 2009 the firm hired Marcos Daniel Jimenez, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, to lead its Miami, Florida office[3] and added insurance recovery litigation to its practice.[9] In January 2010 the company added Robin Cohen and her insurance team from the firm, Dickstein Shapiro.[3]
В ноябре 2012 года фирма открыла дополнительный офис в Кремниевой долине. [10] В мае 2013 года они открыли офис в Лос-Анджелесе, штат Калифорния, во главе с партнерами, которых переманили из Jenner & Block. [11] [12] В июне бывший сенатор США Джо Либерман присоединился к фирме в качестве старшего юрисконсульта [13] , а его бывший руководитель аппарата Сената Кларин Нарди Риддл открыла филиал компании по связям с правительством в Вашингтоне, округ Колумбия [14] В октябре два старших адвоката по судебным делам из NBC Universal присоединились к офису компании в Лос-Анджелесе, чтобы начать практику по судебным разбирательствам в сфере развлечений. [15]
В 2014 году после разрешения нескольких крупных дел компания Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman уволила примерно 30 из 350 своих адвокатов. [16] [17] В 2014 году Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman заняла 119-е место по величине фирмы в США по версии Law360 . [18] В июне фирма была награждена премией Chambers USA 2014 за выдающиеся достижения. [19]