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Keck, Mahin & Cate was a law firm based in Chicago, Illinois that was founded in 1886 and stopped operations in 1997.[1][2]
The firm worked in general practice, banking and bankruptcy law, corporate finances, mergers and acquisitions, and the like. By 1985, it employed 95 lawyers.[3]
The firm had branches in nine other cities, including San Francisco, Houston, New York, and Washington, D.C. In the early 1990s, former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro was a managing partner of its New York office.[4][5] During the 1980s, Victoria Reggie worked at and became a partner in its Washington office.[6][7] Former Governor of Texas Mark White worked in its Houston location after he left office in 1987.[8]
By the mid-1990s, Keck, Mahin & Cate had grown rapidly to have some 350 lawyers and faced financial difficulties.[5] In 1994, it was found guilty of having conspired to defraud investors in a Texas jail construction project and was liable for a share of a $36 million judgment.[8] By early 1996, the firm faced being cut off from a $10 million line of credit from its chief lender, Northern Trust Company.[1]
By summer 1997, the firm had lost more than 90 attorneys in four years, and key defections to Chicago rival Rudnick & Wolfe and Chapman and Cutler LLP occurred.[9] The firm considered halting its operations, and vacated its Chicago Loop offices on Wacker Drive.[10]
Keck, Mahin & Cate effectively ended later in 1997,[2] as in December 1997 several creditors filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy action against it.[11] By the end of the month, this was converted to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[11] It remained there for a number of years.[11] In 2002, the bankruptcy court ruled that some former partners could not escape liability for the firm's debts.[12] That year Bracewell & Patterson successfully defended Keck remnants against a legal malpractice claim dating back to 1992.[13][14]
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