Latham Leaders Honored as Top Law Firm Innovators by The American Lawyer

The groundbreaking initiatives of former and current Latham & Watkins leaders were recognized by The American Lawyer in a feature in the magazine’s August edition on “The Top Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years,” which highlighted “the ideas and initiatives that changed the world of big law over the past half century, and the people behind them.” 

 New York corporate partner Kirk Davenport was named among select innovators in the category “The Work,” which cited attorneys who have developed unique practice specializations. In spearheading such initiatives as the plain English description of notes sections for high yield bond offerings, the magazine said Davenport “has long made it his professional mission to swap opaque jargon for plain English in legal documents,” to the point that “the notes section in virtually all high yield bond transactions is patterned on the Latham template, regardless of whether the firm is involved.” 

Also recognized in the coverage as among “The Master Strategists” was former firm Managing Partner Clint Stevenson (1923–2006), who led the firm from 1967–1989 during its growth into a prominent legal market leader. Stevenson was honored as a “pioneer” for being “among the first regional law firm leaders to recognize that their biggest local clients were going national.”