Before Al Capone and Harry Caray, Muddy Waters and the Playboy Mansion; Chicago was known as the home of the prestigious firm Sidley & Austin, which was founded in 1866. Today, the firm has maintained its reputation and grown to its position as one of the largest firms in the United States and across the globe. A 2001 merger with Brown & Wood (founded in New York in 1914—-a senior citizen in its own right) has created a legal empire comprised of around 1,500 attorneys in offices in Chicago, New York, Hong Kong, Brussels, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Shanghai, London, Geneva, Beijing, Singapore, and Washington, D.C. 2001 should have been a blithesome year for Sidley, Austin Brown & Wood. Sadly, there was little time to celebrate the merger of the two storied firms. Like many other New York establishments, Sidley had its main Manhattan offices located in the World Trade Center. A truly inspiring tale, the atrocities of September 11th wiped out the building; but remarkably, most Sidley employees emerged unscathed, and the branch recovered with astonishing alacrity. Sidley has a wide array of practices befitting a firm of its size. The firm was recently commended for its IP work. However, its general corporate expertise is what Sidley is primarily recognized for. Clients include Chicago institution the Tribune Company, which the law firm aided in its merger with the Times Mirror Company. Sidley attorneys also handled the offering of KPMG Consulting. The IPO went for over $2 billion, and the Washington Business Forward called it the "Deal of the Year." Such a distinction, though never to be taken for granted, is almost run-of-the-mill at Sidley. While the sophistication of cases is an important determining factor in selecting a firm, so is the office environment. Some firms, even those comparable in size to Sidley, lack diversity despite their overall numbers. Thankfully, Sidley features a strong sense of diversity. The firm has a Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity which oversees the trends of the firm; Sidley has even taken measures to aid other firms with diversity by creating the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. Wiley A. Branton, the former Dean of Howard Law School, was a partner at Sidley and the firm has set up a scholarship at Howard in his honor. Sidley encourages pro bono work and claims that its attorneys logged almost 50,000 hours of pro bono service in 2003. Two Chicago partners, Linton Childs and David Schiffman, were singled out for their achievements. Not only is the firm committed to pro bono work, but it practices it at the highest level and possesses an experienced track record in the United States Supreme Court. With an established name and the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with top-notch co-workers; Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood offers exceptional possibilities to dedicated corporate attorneys all over the world.

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