Thread by @kpolantz

The law firm Skadden Arps was implicated in Manafort's foreign lobbying admissions today.
I cannot overstate how big, powerful, rich a law firm Skadden is.
It's top tier among biggest and most powerful NYC firms. Their DC office is huge, yet they're hardly considered a "DC firm"

Putting on my law firm biz reporter hat for a minute. In Skadden's history:
- Revolutionized hostile takeovers/leveraged buyouts on Wall Street
- Welcomed Jewish partners at a time most big US law firms weren't
- In recent years, basically invented corporate tax inversions

Last year, Skadden was the United States' FIFTH largest law firm by revenue.
Was the 11th richest US law firm by partner profitability.
The amount EACH of Skadden's 361 partners made on average in 2017?
$3.47 million
(Stats via @AmericanLawyer)

By headcount, Skadden has 2nd largest law office in New York City, the city with the most lawyers in US. Let that sink in.
Skadden's got 692 lawyers in NYC--a lot of them working with Wall Street and on corporate deals
So DC isn't even its power center
(these stats via @TheNLJ)

That we know of from Mueller's cases, Skadden lawyers from at least two offices, DC and London, are implicated in Manafort's secret Ukrainian lobbying work.
The firm earned $4.6 million for it. (The Ukrainian govt previously said it only paid $12K for the "independent" report)

Back in February, this is what Skadden's comms staff said after former associate Alex Van Der Zwaan's guilty plea:
Skadden "has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter."
No word back re: new allegations when we asked them for comment earlier this week.

Then, further complicating things, another development arose today, via my colleagues @evanperez @eorden.
A big-name former Skadden partner could face possible charges in SDNY cnn.com/2018/09/14/pol…

For further reading to understand why Skadden's implication in the Mueller probe is a big deal for the legal industry, here's an overview of a biography of the firm, published in 1993: chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-19…

Lead sentence of @Forbes profile of Skadden from 2009:
"The name, terse and uncompromising, symbolizes the most rarefied levels of corporate law, where clients throw platoons of attorneys at a problem and barely blink at the resulting $50K-an-hour bills."
forbes.com/2009/01/23/ska…

Lead sentence of @nytimes op-ed from 2011, on the occasion of Skadden cofounder Joe Flom's death:
"Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom may be the world’s most influential corporate law firm."

And a 2014 @WSJ story about how Skadden invented corporate tax inversions: wsj.com/articles/how-t…