[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 5710]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  25TH ANNIVERSARY OF SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER AND FLOM DELAWARE

 Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 25th 
anniversary of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom Delaware. This 
organization is celebrating a quarter century of nationally renowned 
expertise in corporate mergers and acquisitions here in the First 
State. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom has built a reputation 
for providing integral service throughout the Nation and in Delaware. 
If this organization's first quarter century is any indication of what 
it will offer in the future, we have much to which to look forward.
  Marshall Skadden, John Slate, and Les Arps founded the firm in New 
York City on April Fool's Day, 1948. After starting with just three 
lawyers, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom has grown to more than 
1,700 lawyers in nine offices--seven in the United States, one in 
Tokyo, and one in London. Few, if any, law firms in America today are 
more highly regarded professionally or financially successful.
  The firm's client list includes more than one-third of the Fortune 
500 companies, 10 of the top 15 U.S. commercial banks, 23 of the top 25 
U.S. investment banks and 7 of the top 10 Japanese banks doing business 
in the United States. The organization's more than 20 individual 
practice areas serve as visible proof of the successful philosophy: 
that the client's needs always come first; that they can and do commit 
a maximum effort to provide top quality advice and timely service to 
clients; and that the law firm can and should be run as a business, 
consistent with professional responsibilities.
  It was 25 years ago, in May of 1979, that Rodman Ward, Jr. and Steven 
J. Rothschild agreed to open the Wilmington, DE, office of Skadden, 
Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, becoming the 46th and 47th partners in 
that firm. Skadden Delaware became the first major out-of-town law firm 
to open an office in the State of Delaware.
  Over the past 25 years, Skadden Delaware has grown tenfold, from its 
original six attorneys to its present complement of nearly 60, becoming 
one of the largest and most influential law offices in the State of 
Delaware, and employing more than 150 Delawareans.
  Skadden Delaware attorneys have counseled clients in many of the 
largest and most groundbreaking corporate transactions, including 
highly publicized contests for corporate control, and contributed 
thereby to the reputation of the Delaware courts as the preeminent 
arbiters of corporate law issues in the world, and to the State of 
Delaware's dominance as the preferred domicile for corporations large 
and small across the United States.
  Skadden Delaware lawyers have also contributed their professional and 
personal resources to a wide variety of civic and charitable endeavors 
outside the confines of their law practice, to the consistent benefit 
of the State of Delaware and its citizens.
  Former Skadden Delaware lawyers have gone on to hold positions of 
high trust and importance in the State of Delaware, serving on the 
Court of Chancery and the supreme court, as counsel to the Governor, as 
U.S. attorney, and as president of the Delaware bar.
  I thank Skadden Delaware for all that they do, not only in Delaware, 
but across the country, and I wish them a very happy 25th anniversary. 
I rise today to offer my full support and to congratulate them on a 
remarkable quarter century of success.

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