Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

On March 11, 1873, Francis Draper Lewis wrote in his diary that he had “moved table into Morgan’s office,” beginning his partnership with Charles Eldridge Morgan Jr. Lewis, born in Boston, graduated from Amherst College in 1869 and from Harvard Law School two years later; Morgan, born in Philadelphia in 1844, graduated from the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry in 1864, served in the Civil War, read law and was admitted to the bar in 1868. The two opened their office in Philadelphia, representing local banks, businesses and utilities.⁠[1][1][1][2][1][1][2][1]

The firm’s first major client was the United Gas Improvement Company, later known as UGI, which it had represented since the company’s founding in 1882; partners often took posts as UGI in-house lawyers or officers. In 1962 the firm was replaced as UGI’s counsel.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1883 Morris Rex Bockius, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and its law school, joined as an associate; he became a partner in 1898, and in 1908 the firm adopted the name Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Bockius was not a litigator but helped business leaders deal with new laws and regulations, bringing in clients such as Scott Paper and Baldwin Locomotive Works. By the 1920s Morgan and Lewis had withdrawn from the business and Bockius led the firm; from 1922 it represented the Reading Company, handling thousands of employee claims under the 1908 Federal Employers’ Liability Act, and from 1937 it handled the bankruptcy reorganization of Reading’s coal subsidiary. Bockius died in 1939.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

The firm recruited its first Jewish partner in 1961 and hired its first woman attorney two years later; it hired its first Black male associate in 1970 and its first African-American woman associate in 1984. By then it had offices in Philadelphia, New York, Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.; it entered the West Coast with a Los Angeles office in 1976 and added a Miami office the following year.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1972 the firm organized an international division with a small Paris office operated with another firm, and by 1981 it was among the first firms to start a multinational practice in London. After Japan began allowing foreign lawyers to practice under strict conditions in 1986, the firm opened a Tokyo office in 1988, followed by Brussels and Frankfurt offices in 1989.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1983 South Dakota sued Kansas City Southern Industries over disputed property rights and in 1988 won a jury verdict of $844.2 million, more than the company’s net worth; Morgan Lewis lawyers got the verdict reversed after years of litigation, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied any appeal. In the 1980s the firm also represented the U.S. Department of Transportation in the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike and, from 1982, Major League Baseball’s Player Relations Committee.⁠[1][1][1][1]

By the early 1990s Morgan Lewis was Philadelphia’s largest law firm and the eighth largest in the United States. In 1994 it added 55 lawyers from New York’s Lord Day and 50 from Washington’s Newman, Bouknight & Edgar, moving up to fourth nationally. In 1996 it opened offices in Pittsburgh and Singapore. Based on 1997 gross revenue of $359 million, The American Lawyer ranked it eighth among U.S. firms, with 901 lawyers.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In the late 1990s partner Allen W. Stewart, who controlled two Pennsylvania insurance companies, reportedly looted them and set them up for collapse, causing what was thought to be among the largest insurance losses in the state’s history. In late 1997 Stewart was convicted of fraud, money laundering and racketeering and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department sued Morgan Lewis as partly liable for the $124 million the state paid out over the collapsed insurers; in February 1998 the firm agreed to a $35 million settlement, with managing partner Francis Milone maintaining the firm had done nothing wrong but wanted to avoid costly litigation.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

Jami McKeon became chair in 2014. On November 14 of that year, Morgan Lewis voted to admit 227 partners from Boston’s Bingham McCutchen, giving the combined firm nearly 2,000 lawyers and 28 offices and strengthening its presence on both U.S. coasts; the combination came in the first month of McKeon’s tenure.⁠[3][4][4][4][3]

In January 2017 President-elect Donald Trump held a news conference on his plan to address business conflicts of interest, and Morgan Lewis partner Sheri Dillon explained the arrangements, including placing his holdings in trust, having his sons run the companies and appointing an ethics officer to review transactions, and why selling the assets or using a blind trust was impractical. On March 28, H. Scott Wallace, co-chair of the Wallace Global Fund, which works to reduce money’s role in politics, wrote to McKeon that the firm’s representation “encourages impeachable offenses,” and the fund fired the firm; Morgan Lewis declined to comment.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

In the weeks after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Morgan Lewis dropped Donald Trump and his businesses as clients. After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the firm and 19 other large firms received U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission inquiries into their diversity programs.⁠[6][6][6]

In March 2024 Elon Musk’s X Corp.XX (X Corp.) is the company that operates the social platform of the same name, carrying on Twitter’s public conversation service; its main businesses include advertising, business promotion, and paid subscriptions.Open the full entry retained Morgan Lewis to defend a lawsuit by four former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, seeking about $128 million in severance; San Francisco partner Eric Meckley appeared for X. The firm had also represented Musk and X in an earlier Delaware dispute over legal fees, in which the court awarded the former executives $1.1 million in October 2023.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

In November 2025 McKeon said she would step down when her term expired and retire by the end of the following year, saying institutions are healthier when leaders do not stay too long. Firm policy limits chairs to two five-year terms; her second term, originally set to end in 2024, had been extended by two years by a partner vote during the pandemic. Under her leadership the firm partnered with Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersThomson Reuters (Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq symbol TRI) is a content and technology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that provides information, software, and AI products to professional fields including legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media, and owns the news agency Reuters. The company was formed after The Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters Group PLC in 2008, and Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s private investment company, is its controlling shareholder.Open the full entry to beta-test the CoCounsel legal AI tool and opened a Riyadh office; at the time the firm had about $3 billion in revenue, more than 2,000 lawyers and 33 offices.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

On March 23, 2026, Morgan Lewis announced that its partners had unanimously elected David A. McManus, global leader of the labor and employment practice, as its next chair for a five-year term beginning October 1, 2026. McManus, a Morgan Lewis lawyer for more than 30 years who became a partner in 2002, is based in New York and Boston. McKeon, at the firm since 1981, oversaw growth in revenue from under $2 billion to more than $3 billion during her 12 years as chair, including the 2014 Bingham McCutchen combination and the recent addition of 54 lawyers from legacy Kramer Levin’s Paris office.⁠[3][3][8][8][8][8][8][8]

On October 1, 2026, McManus began his term as chair and announced a new global leadership team: Christina Melendi as managing partner of global strategy, Bart W.S. Bassett as managing partner of global talent, Steven A. Reed as managing partner of global performance and Tony Licata continuing as chief operating officer. The same day, 32 lawyers from 13 offices and 11 practices were promoted to partner.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][10]

As of October 2026 Morgan Lewis has more than 2,200 lawyers and legal professionals in more than 30 offices across North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, providing corporate, transactional, litigation and regulatory services in industries including energy, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, retail and e-commerce, sports, technology and transportation. Its Asian offices include Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, and its Middle East offices include Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh.⁠[11][11][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12]

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius: Official website: https://www.morganlewis.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

X: Public account: https://x.com/MorganLewisLaw (opens in a new window)⁠[13]