In 1986, Cravath Swaine & Moore took a big risk – one that had many observers questioning its wisdom. The firm’s leaders decided to move from the staid comfort of Wall Street to the turbulent, undeveloped zone between Hell’s Kitchen and near the Western edge of the Rockefeller Center. The firm’s presiding partner Robert Joffe writes on the result.

By Robert Joffe
Presiding Partner, Cravath

Fifteen years ago a walk on the west side of New York City would have been considered wild. And that statement might be polite.

Today, the west side of Manhattan is one of the most vibrant neighbourhood’s in one the World’s most exciting city. The latest showcase: The new $1.7 billion Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, filled with the latest restaurants, incredible shops and boutique condomineums
with panoramic views of New York’s Central Park.

In 1986, Cravath Swaine & Moore took a big risk – one that had many observers questioning its wisdom. The firm’s leaders decided to move from the staid comfort of Wall Street to the turbulent, undeveloped zone between Hell’s Kitchen and near the Western edge of the Rockefeller Center.

Yes, it wa seen by many as a bold step. But the firm, with an ancestory dating back to Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward, was not interested in making a statement.