Sidley Austin LLP, formerly known as
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP, is one of the oldest law firms in the world. It is the sixth-largest U.S.-based corporate
law firm with more than 1,650
lawyers, annual revenues of more than one billion dollars, and offices in 18 cities worldwide, with the most recent addition of Houston, Texas in February 2012.
It is a full-service law firm, with broad experience in transaction and
litigation matters. Its original predecessor firm was founded in 1866 and had former first lady
Mary Todd Lincoln, then the widow of President
Abraham Lincoln, among its earliest clients. The firm was formed as the result of the merger of two firms: the Chicago-based
Sidley & Austin, founded in 1866, and the New York-based
Brown & Wood, founded in 1914. The merger was completed in May 2001. The firm's headquarters is at
One South Dearborn in the
Chicago Loop,
Chicago.