Law Firm Profile
Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP By Teresa Cajot Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP is a national law firm with 650 lawyers who work primarily with businesses, healthcare providers, money and asset managers, and investors. The firm serves clients in a variety of industry areas including communications, healthcare, information technology, investment and transportation, insurance, and pharmaceuticals.
Drinker Biddle’s beginnings can be traced to the 1849 when John Christian Bullitt established Bullitt and Fairthorne, Attorneys at Law. Henry S. Drinker joined the firm in 1904 and became a partner in 1918, while Thomas Reath joined the firm in 1919. Charles J. Biddle was admitted to the partnership in 1924. In 1999 the New Jersey firm, Shanley & Fisher, combined with Drinker Biddle, sparking a growth trend for the firm. In 2007 Gardner Carton & Douglas also combined with the firm, making it one of the 70 largest firms in the US. In recent years, Drinker Biddle has also added on groups of lawyers from Miller Alfano & Raspanti P.C., Connelly Sheehan Harris LLP, Thelen LLP, and WolfBlock LLP. In 2009, the firm introduced The Byrd Group LLC, a whollyowned subsidiary that offers government relations advice, as well as lobbying services at the local, state, and federal levels. Today, the firm has office locations in Albany, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Washington, DC; Florham Park, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; and Princeton, New Jersey.
management, corporate and securities, customs and international trade, employee benefits and executive compensation, energy, health, environmental, government and regulatory affairs, insurance, intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, labor and employment, investment management, products liability and mass tort, sustainability, tax, real estate, and telecommunications and mass media. Over the years, the Philadelphia-based firm has established lasting relations with a number of high profile clients, including the University of Pennsylvania, AT&T Mobility, CIGNA, the City of Chicago, Illinois State University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Limited Brands, the Kellogg Company, and many others. Drinker Biddle offers a unique First Year Associate Development Program that is comparable to an exhaustive law school practicum. The program is designed to train young lawyers to be client-centered and is divided into a core curriculum phase, a practice-specific training phase, and an apprenticeship phase. First year associates are provided with guidance from experienced Drinker Biddle lawyers, while also participating in experiential case studies. Furthermore, first year associates do not have any billable hour requirements to worry about during the program.
Major practice areas include commercial litigation, communications litigation, electronic discovery and data
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