Latham & Watkins Brand Guidelines: A 1934 Los Angeles Firm Now in 14 Countries

Two Los Angeles lawyers in 1934.

Latham & Watkins was founded in Los Angeles in January 1934 by Dana Latham and Paul Watkins, according to English Wikipedia. Latham practised state and federal tax law; Watkins worked mainly in labour law. Latham later served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 1958 to 1961, under President Eisenhower, and in 1950 was president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, according to his Wikipedia biography.

The firm grew slowly at first. Wikipedia says it had 19 lawyers in 1960.

That changed in February 1978, when the firm opened in Washington, D.C., adding Carla Anderson Hills, who had left her post as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development the year before, as a named partner. She oversaw the firm’s move into administrative law, and the new office was staffed with lawyers from Los Angeles and hires from federal agencies, according to English Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s list of the firm’s alumni records that Hills went on to serve as United States Trade Representative.

The larger expansion came under the chair Robert Dell, whose tenure lasted twenty years. Wikipedia lists the openings: San Diego in 1980, Chicago in 1982, New York in 1985, San Francisco and London in 1990, Moscow in 1992, Hong Kong and Tokyo in 1995, and Silicon Valley and Singapore in 1997.

Offices from Austin to Tokyo.

Today Latham & Watkins says it is located in 14 countries and draws on “more than 60 disciplines.” Its website lists offices across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, from Austin and Brussels to Riyadh and Tokyo, with Los Angeles still among them. English Wikipedia counts more than 3,500 lawyers in 31 offices as of 2026. Not every office has lasted: in August 2023 the firm announced that it would close its Shanghai office as it consolidated its work in China, Wikipedia says.

In the trade rankings the firm sits near the top. Wikipedia says it has ranked second by revenue in the Am Law 100 since 2021, after holding first place in the 2017 ranking. It ranked fourth in the Vault Law 100 in 2024, and in the same year received its tenth consecutive ranking from Chambers and Partners, a record run for practice and lawyer rankings by Wikipedia’s account.

The firm puts pro bono work near the front of its self-description. It says it opened more than 1,000 pro bono matters in 2025, that more than 90 percent of its lawyers take part, and that its commitment has made it “one of the largest pro bono legal service providers in the world.” Its website also describes “Latham Edge,” a firmwide strategy for artificial intelligence, and points former lawyers to an alumni network.

The same pages set out four values in short headings: “Unwavering Client Focus,” “Consistent Excellence,” “True Partnership” and “Strong Teamwork.” The firm also says 20 of its offices hold LEED, BREEAM or an equivalent green building certification, and that more than 3,700 people belong to its affinity groups, networks and coalitions, which it says are open to all.

In April 2025 Latham & Watkins was one of nine large firms that reached agreements with the Trump administration to commit pro bono work, according to English Wikipedia and Above the Law, which recalled the agreements in November 2026.

How large US firms present themselves.

Large American law firms tend to present themselves with restraint. Many are named after founding or senior partners, and their names are often set as sober wordmarks: a serif with a long institutional pedigree, or a plain grotesque sans, usually in a single colour. Navy, near-black and white are common choices, with an occasional accent kept for links and headings rather than for decoration. Long partnership titles are frequently cut down over the decades to two surnames joined by an ampersand, or to a single surname used in conversation.

Their websites are built around how clients and recruits search. Practice-area and industry pages sit near the top, alongside a directory of lawyer biographies, each with a headshot, admissions, education and representative work. Latham & Watkins, for example, organises its main menu under People, Capabilities, Achievements, Insights and Global Citizenship, and lists every office by city on its About Us page.

Publishing is a large part of the presentation. Firms issue client alerts on new laws and rulings, along with articles, podcasts and webcasts grouped under headings such as insights or thought leadership. Many also publish pro bono reports, figures on community service and reports on diversity and inclusion, and some set out environmental commitments for their offices.

Recruiting pages form a separate register, written for law students and junior lawyers: summer associate programmes, training, office life and alumni networks. Across all of these pages the visual system usually stays quiet, so that the firm’s name, its people and its record of work carry the identity. The guides in this series look at how individual firms use those conventions, and where their histories and names differ.

The founders’ names, unchanged.

Unlike many firms that have passed through long strings of partners’ names, Latham & Watkins still carries the two surnames it began with in 1934. Hills was added as a named partner in 1978, according to Wikipedia, but the firm is known today by its founders’ names alone.

The firm describes itself in plain commercial terms: it says it “advises the businesses and institutions that power the global economy,” and that it aims to “shape the deals and win the disputes that transform markets.” Those lines open its About Us page, above the four values and a set of figures on pro bono work and offices.

Its website is organised the way a client or a recruit would look for it. The main menu runs to People, Capabilities, Achievements, Insights and Global Citizenship. The Insights section gathers blogs, podcasts and webcasts alongside the firm’s Book of Jargon, and the Global Citizenship section covers pro bono and community service, inclusion and environmental sustainability. Office pages, a newsroom and a careers section sit below.

The firm also publishes its site in seven other languages, among them Chinese, German and Japanese.

The firm’s offices are listed by city in the footer of its About Us page, a plain roll of names that runs from Austin to Washington, D.C.

The palette here is our own interpretation: a deep Pacific blue and a near-black with a cool white and a sand tone, a nod to the firm’s California start.

For a design guide, Latham & Watkins shows how a founders’ name can be kept intact while the firm behind it grows from one city to many. Compare Kirkland & Ellis, which ranks beside it by revenue, and Gibson Dunn, another large US firm in this series. For this guide we use blue, ink, white and sand with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Latham & Watkins’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.