# Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray LLP is an American multinational law firm with 14 offices located in the U.S., Asia and Europe. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers and professionals worldwide; its clients include corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and health care organizations. It was founded in 1865 in Boston by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray.

## History

The firm was founded in 1865 by two Harvard Law School graduates, John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray. In 1878, William Loring, also a Harvard graduate, joined the firm, and it was renamed "Ropes, Gray and Loring" until Loring's departure in 1899, when he was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. During that time, the firm represented the New York and New England Railroad.
In 2003, the firm acquired New York City-based private equity law firm Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard. In 2005, it acquired NYC-based intellectual property law firm Fish & Neave.
In 2017, the firm elected Julie Jones as chair. After serving as chair-elect for two years, Jones took the helm in 2020. In 2024, Jones was re-elected to another five-year term.
In July 2023, Ropes & Gray announced the relocation of some Shanghai-based lawyers to its Hong Kong operation and the launch of an office in Singapore. In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Ropes & Gray 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 stated: "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."

## Prominent transactions

Ropes & Gray lawyers have advised on major transactions, including:
* Altimeter Growth Corp. in its merger to take Grab public for $39.6 billion, the largest special-purpose acquisition company merger in history
* The acquisition by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital of Clear Channel Communications, for $26 billion
* Bain Capital's and The Blackstone Group's acquisition of The Weather Channel, in a multibillion-dollar deal
* The sale of the Warner Music Group to Access Industries by private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee, for $3.3 billion
* Genzyme's acquisition by Sanofi-Aventis, for $20.1 billion
* NSTAR's merger with Northeast Utilities, for $7.1 billion
* China Everbright's acquisition of Focus Media, for $3.7 billion
* TPG Capital's acquisition of J.Crew, for $3 billion
* A private equity group's acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts, for $2.4 billion
* Berkshire Partners acquisition of Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks, for $2 billion
* The Bare Escentuals merger with Shiseido of Japan, a $1.7 billion deal
* Bain Capital's acquisition of MYOB, Australia's largest financial software developer;
* Bain Capital's acquisition of Bellsystem24
* TPG Capital and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board's $5.2 billion acquisition of IMS Health Inc., a provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and health care industries
* Genzyme Corporation's $2.9 billion deal with Bayer Schering Pharma AG that expanded Genzyme's oncology portfolio by giving the company rights to marketed cancer drugs and control of a program in multiple sclerosis. The transaction was recognized as a "Deal of Distinction" by the Licensing Executives Society in September 2010
* Bain Capital's 2018 sale by Toshiba Corp. of its semiconductor business to a group that included Apple, Seagate, Kingston, Hoya, Dell Technologies and SK Hynix. The transaction was Asia's largest leveraged buyout and private equity deal ever, and was valued at approximately $18 billion
* Nippon Steel Corporation's 2023 definitive agreement to purchase U.S. Steel for $14 billion.

## Prominent cases

Ropes & Gray lawyers have litigated high-profile cases, including:
* Defending physicians’ First Amendment rights in Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida. The case concerned a Florida law banning doctors from inquiring about patients’ gun ownership.
* Representing Gawker in its Chapter 11 filing.
* Leading a 10-month independent investigation for the U.S. Olympic Committee into sexual abuses by former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar.
* Representing Willkie Farr & Gallagher (then) co-chairman Gordon Caplan, JD, who was arrested in March 2019 as a parent participant in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. Caplan is represented by firm partners Joshua Levy, co-chairman of global litigation and enforcement practice, and Michael McGovern, co-chairman of government enforcement practice. A guilty plea deal in United States v. Gordon Caplan was filed by United States Attorney Andrew Lelling on March 27, 2019. An Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting the case, Leslie Wright, is a Ropes & Gray alumna.
* Representing Harris Associates in a seminal case for the mutual funds industry. In March 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Harris Associates, which definitively established the standard governing claims of excessive mutual fund fees under § 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
* Defending former BP engineer Kurt Mix against obstruction of justice charges related to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

## Awards

The firm received five Law360 “Practice Group of the Year” awards for private equity, fund formation, securitizations, health care and white collar in 2019.

## Notable current and former attorneys

* Eleanor D. Acheson (associate 1974–83; partner, 1983–93), Amtrak executive and Assistant Attorney General of the United States
* Henry Adams, historian and member of the Adams political family
* Brooks Adams, historian and member of the Adams political family
* Michael P. Allen, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
* Michael J. Astrue, associate (1984–85), poet and Commissioner of the Social Security Administration
* Mark Barnes (partner), activist, academic, former Chief Research Compliance Officer at Harvard University
* Marta Belcher (attorney), blockchain law pioneer
* Yochai Benkler (associate, 1994–95), professor at Harvard Law School
* Janis M. Berry (partner, 1986–97), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court
* William Birdthistle (associate, 2001–06), director of Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Investment Management
* Eric Bjornlund, co-founder of Democracy International
* Joan Toland Bok, (associate, 1955–59), chair of New England Electric and director of Avery Dennison
* John F. Bok, (associate, 1955–c. 1960s), influential Boston municipal lawyer
* Robert F. Bradford, 57th Governor of Massachusetts
* Stephen L. Braga (partner), criminal defense attorney known for successful pro bono representation of Martin Tankleff
* Levin H. Campbell, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
* Allison G. Catheron, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
* Jennifer Choe-Groves, Judge of the United States Court of International Trade
* John Demers (associate, 2000–03), United States Associate Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice National Security Division
* Robert C. Clark (associate, 1972–74), Dean of the Faculty of Law at Harvard University
* Archibald Cox (associate, 1938–45), U.S. Solicitor General and special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal
* Bessie Dewar (associate), Associate Justic eof the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
* Lee M. Friedman (associate, 1895–97), lawyer and historian
* John Chipman Gray (founding partner), property law scholar and half-brother of Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray
* Rebecca Haffajee (associate), acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation
* George S. Hawkins, general manager of the DC Water and Sewer Authority
* Horace Hildreth, 59th Governor of Maine
* Olin M. Jeffords, (associate, 1919–21), Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
* William Loring (named partner), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Harvard Law School professor, and general counsel of the New York and New England Railroad
* Nikolas P. Kerest, (associate, 2001–04), United States Attorney for the District of Vermont
* Isabelle Kinsolving (associate, 2012–22), member of the 2004 United States Olympic rowing team
* John Kingston III, (associate), general counsel of Affiliated Managers Group and candidate for United States Senate in 2018
* Cheryl LaFleur, commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
* Joshua S. Levy (partner), United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
* Henry Cabot Lodge, (associate, 1875–80), United States Senator from Massachusetts
* Frederick Charles Lough, decorated veteran of World War II and brigadier general in the United States Army
* George H. Lyman (associate), chairman of the Massachusetts Republican state committee and Collector of the Port of Boston
* R. Bradford Malt (chairman, 2004–19), sole trustee of Mitt Romney’s blind trusts during his tenure as Governor and two presidential campaigns.
* Diane Bemus Patrick (partner), First Lady of Massachusetts (2007–15)
* John Palfrey (associate, 2001–02), president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
* Elliot Richardson (associate, 1949–53, 1955–57; partner, 1961–65), U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1970–73), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1973), U.S. Attorney General (1973), U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1975–76), and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1976–77)
* John Richardson (1911–1970s; hiring partner), Republican National Committeeman from Massachusetts (1932–36)
* John Codman Ropes (founding partner), military historian
* Theodore Ruger, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law
* Heather Sanborn, member of the Maine Senate
* Henry Lee Shattuck, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, member of the Boston City Council and philanthropist
* Charles Soule, comic book writer for Marvel Comics
* Clayton Spencer (associate, 1986–1989), president of Bates College
* David O. Stewart, author
* Christopher Taylor (associate) Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan
* Robert Troyer, (associate, 1990–93), United States Attorney for the District of Colorado
* James Vorenberg (associate, 1954–60; partner, 1960–62), Dean of the Faculty of Law of Harvard University
* Dalila Argaez Wendlandt (partner), Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
* Jane Willis (partner), member of the MIT Blackjack Team fictionalized in Bringing Down the House and 21
* Keith Wofford (partner), candidate for New York Attorney General in 2018
* Louis C. Wyman, (associate) United States Senator and United States Representative from New Hampshire