Walter, Conston, Alexander & Green
| Headquarters | New York City |
|---|---|
| No. of attorneys | 54 |
| Key people | Otto Walter, Henry Conston, William Shurtman |
| Date founded | 1843 |
| Company type | Professional corporation |
| Dissolved | 2001 |
Walter, Conston, Alexander & Green, P.C. was a mid-sized full service New York-based law firm that existed from 1843-2001 when it merged with Atlanta-based Alston & Bird to launch the New York office of that national firm. The firm was formed with the merger of Walter, Conston & Schurtman established in 1955 by Otto Walter and Alexander & Green, an old-line firm established in 1843.
History
Alexander & Green was the launchpad for three former law clerks who went on to establish Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1884. Henry Alexander of legacy firm Alexander & Green represented Samuel Clemens in a contract dispute. It was a white shoe firm that was one of the first of such historically Protestant institutions to accept Catholic attorneys and graduates from non-Ivy League law schools in the 1920s. Walter, Conston & Schurtman was a firm with an international orientation. Otto Walter was a German-born Jew who was prohibited from practicing law in Germany upon graduation due to Nazi restrictions. He fled to the United States and studied law at New York Law School.[1] In the post-World War II years, Walter assisted in German-American reconciliation as an adviser to the German Ministry of Finance on various taxation and legal issues.[2] Later his law firm went on to establish a strong German, Austrian and Swiss practice with a roster of bluechip German clients including Bertelsmann and Beiersdorf. It also had special expertise in e-commerce law, pharmaceutical, intellectual property, and telecommunications. The firm numbered some 54 attorneys in its New York headquarters and branch offices in Darien, CT and Munich, Germany.
For a short time subsequent to the merger with Alston & Bird, in an attempt to preserve some of the name recognition of the well-regarded Walter, Conston firm, the New York office operated under the moniker "Walter, Conston, Alexander & Green, the New York Office of Alston & Bird." Since the 2001 merger, many of the attorneys that practiced in the international area during the Walter, Conston era have left the firm.
References
- ↑ http://www.walterfoundation.org/History.html
- ↑ "Deaths: Otto Walker," The New York Times, January 16, 2003. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9e01e5dc1e31f935a25752c0a9659c8b63