What Is a White Shoe Firm?
Let me explain what a white shoe firm is—it's an old-school term for the top-tier, deeply rooted businesses in high-end professions. Originally, you'd hear it mostly for law firms, like 'white-shoe law firm,' but now it covers areas like investment banking and management consulting too.
These firms usually boast a long history, ideally a century or more, with a roster of elite clients built over generations. They're often headquartered on the East Coast in prime locations, and while they're industry leaders, they have a rep for being traditional and conservative. You know the type—stable, but not always the quickest to change.
Key Takeaways
To sum it up quickly: a white shoe firm is that vintage label for the most respected, longstanding companies. They're mostly in law, banking, and finance. They've got ties to Ivy League and WASP culture, with a conservative approach. The name comes from white buck oxfords that Ivy Leaguers loved in the 1950s, and it popped up in the 1970s. Over time, some of these firms have been bought out or shut down.
Understanding a White Shoe Firm
The phrase traces back to white buck shoes—those oxfords that were all the rage starting around 1910. They caught on at Princeton, known for its stylish crowd, and spread to other Ivy League spots by the 1950s. Ads pushed them as 'upper-class comfort,' and with their link to fancy sports like tennis and golf, plus that hard-to-keep-clean white color, they screamed elite status—think old money that doesn't get its hands dirty.
So, a white shoe firm is packed with people who fit that mold, men and now women too. I recall William Safire tracing it to the mid-1970s in publications like Forbes and Business Week. Most started in New York, but places like Boston, Philadelphia, or even D.C. and Charleston count. The shoes are out of style now, but the term sticks for giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs in banking; Cravath or Shearman in law; Ernst & Young in accounting; or McKinsey in consulting. It's even used internationally for top firms.
Negative Connotations of a White Shoe Firm
Sure, it sounds prestigious, but 'white shoe firm' used to carry some baggage. People saw them as East Coast WASP clubs where outsiders—Jews, Catholics, people of color—weren't welcome, just like their country clubs. Irwin Stelzer, from the Hudson Institute, shared how in the 1960s, he and his Jewish partner didn't even try pitching to them; they had a formula involving Roman numerals in partner names to spot the no-go zones.
Beyond prejudice, the term could knock firms for being too old-school and cautious, like in a Business Week piece calling out First Boston for resting on its laurels and stagnating.
White Shoe Firms Today
Nowadays, a white shoe firm is basically any longstanding heavyweight in its field—big, influential, and a symbol of quality, stability, and endurance. Think of them as the blue-chip stocks of the business world.
Examples of Contemporary White Shoe Firms
- In accounting and advisory: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
- In legal: Cahill Gordon & Reindel, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, Greenberg Traurig, Jones Day, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, O'Melveny & Myers, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Proskauer Rose, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Weil Gotshal & Manges.
- In banking: Goldman Sachs, Lazard Ltd, UBS, Deutsche Bank, William Blair & Company.
Troubled White Shoe Firms
Even these powerhouses aren't bulletproof. Firms in stable areas like law and consulting keep going strong, but finance ones have taken hits from changes and crises. The 2008 meltdown took down Lehman Brothers, founded in 1844—it went bankrupt with over $600 billion in losses from mortgages. Bear Stearns, from 1923, got sold off to JPMorgan Chase after CDO disasters. Merrill Lynch ended up with Bank of America.
Mergers have thinned the herd too, like the Big Eight accounting firms becoming the Big Four, with Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merging into PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998.
White Shoe Firm FAQs
What about a silk stocking law firm? It's similar—a big-city outfit with hundreds of lawyers, serving rich clients for high fees, demanding tons of billable hours from top-school grads. Not always as ancient as white shoe ones, though.
How do you get into one? Back then, be a WASP guy from the Northeast with Ivy creds. Now they're more diverse, but you still need top grades from elite schools for entry-level, or serious experience for higher roles. Connections help, but you need the skills too.
Do they pay well? Yes, top pay, but expect the prestige to be part of the deal—they demand long hours and high pressure.
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