History
Dickstein Shapiro was founded by Sidney Dickstein and David I. Shapiro in New York City in 1953. By 1956, the firm moved its headquarters to Washington, DC. The firm quickly established its reputation by winning several high-profile cases, including Silver v. New York Stock Exchange before the United States Supreme Court.
Over the following decades, the firm grew organically and through lateral hiring. In 2001, Dickstein Shapiro merged with Roberts, Sheridan & Kotel, a New York boutique firm that had spun off from Cravath, Swaine & Moore and which was primarily focused on corporate finance and tax law.
In 2012, the firm entered into merger discussions with San Francisco-based international firm Pillsbury Winthrop, but those talks ended by early 2013.
Dickstein Shapiro hired former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert as a lobbyist shortly after he resigned his seat in Congress. Hastert was later indicted in May 2015 on charges of illegally withdrawing money from banks to pay hush money to an individual that he committed misconduct against years ago. Hastert resigned his lobbyist position the day the indictment was unsealed. Hastert’s biography was quickly removed from the firm’s website, and the firm also purged all mentions of Hastert from its previously posted press releases.[9] Hastert’s resignation from Dickstein Shapiro following the indictment against him left the law firm and lobbying firm “reeling,” according to news reports. The firm’s lobbying business had already been struggling; it was reported that the firm had billed $130,000 on behalf of eight clients for the first quarter of 2015, “not close to being on track for its overall 2014 billings, when it brought in $3.7 million for the year.”[9] In the few years preceding the indictment, Dickstein Shapiro had already “faced an exodus of … talent” to rival firms Greenberg Traurig and Cozen O’Connor, as well as “the loss of major client contracts” including Lorillard Tobacco Co., Peabody Energy Corp., Bayer Corp., and Covanta Energy Corp. Following the Hastert indictment, it was reported that Dickstein Shapiro’s biggest domestic client, Fuels America, terminated its lobbying contract with the firm