When the newly formed partnership of Thomas Shearman and John Sterling opened its doors in 1873, New York City was in its rise as a major world financial center. The great industrialists of the day vied in the courts and in the marketplace to build and control the railroad, oil, coal, and steel industries, and in the process helped shape the modern economy around the world. Shearman & Sterling not only guided clients through the period of turbulent growth in the U.S. economy, but also became involved in the spread of American business into world markets and the entry of businesses from abroad into the expanding U.S. market. Today, New York remains a principal crossroad of international finance and business and the headquarters of our thriving global legal practice.

Our lawyers in New York built a strong reputation through their representation of leading national and international corporations and financial institutions, with some relationships spanning decades. As international growth accelerated in the last half of the 20th century, the firm's range of practices expanded to meet increasingly complex needs of clients, and our work on their behalf took us to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. New York lawyers were first sent abroad to establish offices in London and Paris in the 1960s and '70s -- the precursors of today's global network.

While the New York office contains the largest concentration of the firm's lawyers and represents all of its practice areas, we operate on the firmwide principle that our success is tied directly to our ability to form teams with colleagues, across the hall or across the globe.